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1----
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5!Main Cast
6[[folder:General]]
7
8[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/95676301_4502_42ea_99fb_d3f482797903.jpeg]]
9[[caption-width-right:350:]]
10
11* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Will has several of these moments with both Uncle Phil and Carlton, despite being at odds with them most of the time.
12* BigThinShortTrio: The three main characters: [[LargeAndInCharge Phil]], Will, and [[TinySchoolBoy Carlton]], respectively. Will is tall and skinny, and constantly mocks the other two.
13* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In season 1, the Bankses are a lot more posh, preferring a weekly tea party, listening to classical music, and obsessing over Will ruining their image. In later seasons, this is slowly minimized and they seem a more down-to-Earth family with relatable family issues.
14* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling:
15** Hilary is a foolish shopping-obsessed ditz, while Ashley is responsible, smart, and mature. Zig-zagged with Carlton, as he's a studious overachiever, but in his own way, he's as foolish as Hilary.
16** Carlton likes to think of himself as the Responsible cousin to Will's Foolish, due to Will being TheSlacker. In many cases, it's subverted since Will acts as the mature one to Carlton's {{Manchild}}.
17* HumbleParentSpoiledKids: Philip and Vivian are down to earth and well-adjusted people, who are also very wealthy thanks to their careers as adults, with especially Philip being a SelfMadeMan who overcame the difficulties of the pre-Civil Rights era. Their two oldest children, Hilary and Carlton, are stuck-up and spoiled {{Upper Class Twit}}s who brag about their family's wealth. Averted with their third daughter Ashley who is levelheaded like her parents.
18* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Most of the main characters have jerky traits (Will being a disrespectful troublemaker, Phil being strict and harsh, Carlton and Hilary being selfish and spoiled, Geoffrey being a mean DeadpanSnarker, and Jazz being often a bad friend), but they all have a good heart deep down. Will and Phil are the most prominent examples, but they all have their nice moments.
19* MeaningfulName: A rich family called "Banks". [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep With a butler literally named Geoffrey Butler]].
20* NiceToTheWaiter: The family members' treatment of Geoffrey. Vivian and Ashley are the nicest to him (Geoffrey makes it clear Ashley is his favorite of the family, especially when she's still a child), whereas the rest of the family tend to take him for granted, especially Hilary. Phil tries to be professional with him, but doesn't pay him nearly enough for Geoffrey's liking. Will takes him as much for granted as Carlton does, but is also the first to help him out when Geoffrey's got personal issues.
21[[/folder]]
22
23[[folder:Will Smith]]
24!!Will Smith (Creator/WillSmith)
25[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fresh_prince_will_smith.jpg]]
26[[caption-width-right:350:''"My horoscope says that I'm gonna be a famous rapper with a TV show."'']]
27!!!'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/GregGermain (European French)
28
29->''"My fault, man! I must have got the wrong crib. I didn't know there were so many brothers living in this neighborhood! We're doing all right, huh?"''
30
31The title character. Once a street-wise youth in Philadelphia, a skirmish with a bully causes Will to be sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air, California. The show focuses on Will living and interacting with the upper-class society and residential celebrities. Later on, there's more focus on Will's college life.
32----
33* AcademicAthlete: Mostly in early seasons. He is the prep school's star basketball player and in season 1 he's stated to be an avid student and a teacher invited to dinner also states he got an A in his class. In season 2 he also manages to score higher than Carlton on a standardized test and it's mentioned his grades were still good. In later seasons, he is more TheSlacker when it comes to academics and his basketball skills are rarely mentioned.
34* TheAce: Which isn't to say he can't muck up, but he's fast-thinking and fast-talking enough that he usually gets out of trouble eventually. He's also athletic, popular, a ChickMagnet, and gets great grades without even trying ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn at least in high school]]). He also shows random skills and talents in different episodes as the plot demands.
35* AccidentalPornomancer: Though he's definitely TheCasanova, there has been an occasional story about a woman who just wouldn't take no for an answer, or whom sleeping with was just an all-around bad idea but happened anyway at their behest. His girlfriend's mother, for example.
36* AgeAppropriateAngst: The last 2 seasons had Will often concerning whether or not he'll be able to make something of his life.
37* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: To Carlton. The episodes that focus on Will and Carlton's rivalry usually end up badly for the latter (with a few exceptions, like ''Soul Train'') who will inevitably become jealous of Will's success.
38* AMFMCharacterization: He's a fan of rap and hip hop.
39* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: When Will poses as Ashley's father for an interview he acts like this
40-->'''Will:''' Ashley's mom walked out on us. I had to be both mom and dad. We went from training wheels to training bras. Both came off too soon.
41* AsideGlance: Frequently. Heck, his featured picture even shows him engaged in one!
42* BadLiar: A surprisingly realistic example. He's a ConsummateLiar when he can think up a lie in advance, but a BadLiar when he has to think up a lie on the spot.
43* BerserkButton: PlayedForLaughs with his cherished Willie Mays-autographed baseball. He doesn't take it well when he thinks it was stolen when the Banks' house is robbed, or when he learned that Ashley actually took it for baseball practice.
44* BigBrotherInstinct: He's very protective of Ashley, although he's more like "Big Cousin Instinct". When Ashley is a teenager in later seasons, she doesn't always appreciate this. He also has some shades of this with the naiver Carlton.
45* BigBrotherMentor: To his youngest cousin Ashley, who looks up to him.
46* BigManOnCampus: In one episode Carlton admits he's jealous of Will because Will is "tall, good at basketball, and gets all the babes".
47* BlackAndNerdy: Downplayed. He's a bit of a ClosetGeek and collects ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' figures and reads comic books.
48* BornLucky: It's a recurring theme throughout the show that Will stumbles into opportunities that Carlton would all but kill for. At one point his charisma and talent have a Princeton recruiter literally ''begging'' Will to accept a position at the university, leaving Carlton horrified.
49* BothSidesHaveAPoint:
50** In '72 Hours', Will and Carlton call out one another for their hypocrisy and mistreatment towards one another. Will is open about wanting to behave the way he wants, yet constantly shames Carlton for behaving the way he does because he's not 'black enough'. As Carlton says, Will treats him like he doesn't measure up to a 'blackness ruler' he carries around for a while. Will, on the other hand, brings up that Carlton treats him like he's an idiot simply because he doesn't speak or act the way he does. He rightly states that Carlton being angry at him for judging him is hypocritical as Carlton judges Will just as much.
51** In another episode, Will and Carlton both vie for a business position they both desire. At the end of the episode, Will calls Carlton out on how he wants for everything for himself despite having so much already and is just being extremely selfish. Will isn't wrong that Carlton already did have much of he wanted and already had a position he was happy with, only wanting the new position because it was better than his current one rather than letting Will have it. This prompts Carlton to call out Will on his laziness and how he thinks he can just use his charm to get what he wants. Throughout the episode, Will did want the position, but relied on being charming rather than putting in actual work and proving why he deserves it, even going as far as to compare Will to his father, Lou. This predictably makes Will angry and states that he is NOTHING like his father.
52* BreakingTheFourthWall: Will does this at least once every three episodes, if not more.
53* BrilliantButLazy: Even though he acts like a slacker, he is shown to be this on several occasions, showing many HiddenDepths. In one episode, he scores higher than Carlton, someone who usually gets very good grades, on a standardized test. Will scores in the 91st percentile whereas Carlton scores in the 90th. The thing is, Will didn't even study for the test whereas Carlton studied his ass off. Naturally, Carlton is upset. At the end of the episode, Will calms him down by pointing out that they each have their own strengths -- Will did better on some parts of the test whereas Carlton did better on other parts -- and their total scores are only one point apart. Also, he says, it's an aptitude test, not something studying ought to help with.
54* ButtMonkey: At times. Notably, he's been knocked and humiliated a few times by more intimidating guys. He also gets hurt for physical comedy in quite a few episodes.
55* CallingParentsByTheirName: This is a justified case with Will and his estranged father Lou. He does this when Lou walks out of his life again after Lou promises him a trip with him.
56-->'''Will:''' You too... ''Lou''.
57* TheCasanova: A true womanizer known for his numerous philandering and infamous pickup lines.
58* CasanovaWannabe: Just as often, though, his attempts at seduction fall flat on their faces.
59* CharacterCatchphrase: [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre "You know what I mean?" / "You know what I'm sayin'?"]]
60* CharacterDevelopment: Primarily regarding his relationship with Carlton. Early on, Will gives Carlton grief about not being black enough, but eases off once he sees Carlton face discrimination from other blacks for exactly this and realizes how asinine and unfair it is. Will was pretty much sought to retain his free-will "Homeboy" lifestyle when first settling in Bel-Air, but has become more accustomed to it and more open about his knowledge of numerous references. Also towards the final 2 seasons he starts to mature and try to take more responsibility with stuff like trying to make a living for him and Lisa, trying to keep Uncle Phil from seeing the destroyed kitchen to help Uncle Phil not himself, and taking initiative at his job.
61* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first season, while still being goofy and fun-loving, he was also stated to be a hard-working good student and was apparently bullied at school in Philly for actually studying. In early season 2 he is BrilliantButLazy and manages to score higher than Carlton on a standardized test, without even studying. In season 3 ("The Alma Matter"), he's stated to be a mediocre student. In college, he's still portrayed as a slacker, introducing his professor to Hilary to improve his failing class or cheating to get a good grade.
62* TheCharmer: When he and Carlton are doing interviews for Princeton Admissions, what separates the two is that Will is excellent at making great first impressions.
63* ClosetGeek: He definitely has his nerdy side. If he applies himself even a ''little'' he will achieve grades that rival Carlton in school, and don't even get him started on ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. Back as a kid in Philly Will loved to read, but carried his books in a pizza box so the other boys wouldn't throw them in a puddle.
64* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Not as much as other characters but he is eccentric, with all his LargeHam moments and corny pickup lines.
65* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: To Carlton, quite a few of the episodes revolve around Will trying to break him out of his ManChild behavior. Ironically Carlton ''thinks'' he's this to Will. In reality, it's actually the opposite.
66* CoolBigBro: To Ashley since the first episode, although this is toned down in later seasons. In the first episode she tells him "You're like the big brother l never had".
67* CowardlyLion: He will usually try to weasel his way out of a fight, but he ''will'' fight back if he absolutely has to.
68* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: While normally on the receiving end of fights. He does have his moments where he is victorious, such as beating up Dougie and a guy that was moving in on a female celeb he was dating.
69* DeadpanSnarker: Only second to Geoffrey. He makes sassy remarks especially around Carlton and Uncle Phil.
70* {{Delinquents}}: Will's mother sent him to live with the Banks hoping they could set him on the straight and narrow after one too many run-ins with the law. The opening credits also have him being admonished by a policeman for vandalism.
71* DefinitelyJustACold: Will tries this to get out of a tonsillectomy. It does not work.
72-->'''Will:''' ''[singing and dancing weakly]'' I got no more fever, I got no more fever... Aunt Viv?\
73'''Vivian:''' Yes?\
74'''Will:''' Catch me. ''[faints]''
75* DidntThinkThisThrough: While Will often has a lot of ideas that would be good on paper, he often forgets one important detail that screws things up. Examples include:
76** Getting Uncle Phil to invest in Chalet Towers without knowing why it was up for sale (turns out the manager was trying to avoid a slumlord conviction)
77** When "The Hilary Show" needs better guests, he gets a dismissed juror from a high profile case Uncle Phil was the judge for to come on the show. While the guest's rant is hilarious, Uncle Phil is not happy about what the man said about him.
78* DisapprovingLook: He liked to give this a lot, especially to Carlton when he acted particularly childish.
79* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: He doesn't take it well when someone insults his mother or slanders Uncle Phil. Judge Robertson learns this the hard way.
80* FamilyOfChoice: Over the course of the show Will comes to see Uncle Phil as his father, especially after his fateful encounter with his biological father, who he ends up disowning after being abandoned a second time. He also comes to see his cousins as his siblings and Aunt Vivian as a second mother despite still having a wonderful relationship with his biological mother.
81* FishOutOfWater: The premise of the show, with Will being an easygoing streetwise kid from West Philadelphia moving to rich, snooty Bel-Air. It's especially noticeable in the early seasons when he a student at Bel-Air Prep. The season 2 premiere also shows him being scared out of his mind by an earthquake while everyone else is able to shake it off since they are more used to them.
82* FunPersonified: Very fun-loving and always joking around. Most of the time anyway.
83* GeniusDitz: A little bit. Tray mentioned how he would hide his textbooks and study times from people back in Philly, lest he be targeted for fights and mocked. It helps said friend was there to protect him. It was based on the real Will Smith being a surprisingly excellent student.
84* HandsomeLech: He is shamelessly flirty and obsessed with ladies. His pickup lines are very corny (“Hey baby, you look so good I wish I could plant you and grow a whole field of y'all!”) but he gets away with it because he’s Will Smith.
85* HappilyAdopted: By the end of the series, he freely admits that he's elated in having his Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian as his father and a second mother to go along with his actual mother, not to mention being able to have siblings in Carlton, Hilary, Ashley, and Nicky. All six of them are more than happy to reciprocate that feeling.
86* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Jazz (more so in the earlier seasons) and Carlton (more so in the later seasons).
87* HiddenDepths:
88** His first appearance has Will showing off some skilled piano playing.
89** In one episode, he scores higher than Carlton, someone who usually gets very good grades, on a standardized test.
90** Will has also shown an adeptness for poetry.
91** He won over a Princeton recruiter by solving a Rubik's cube in only a few seconds.
92** In the first season, while still being goofy, flamboyant and fun-loving, he was also implied to be secretly serious and studious (and was apparently bullied at school in Philly for actually studying). This trait was removed though and from season 2 onwards he's portrayed as a BrilliantButLazy slacker.
93** He has shown on a few occasions to be very insecure about his father not being in his life.
94** He has a lot of natural talent as a salesman; even his boss calls him one of the best he's ever seen.
95* HighSchoolHustler: Although most of his schemes were done at home with Uncle Phil being the DeanBitterman.
96* {{Hypocrite}}:
97** Will often ridicules Carlton for having different interests, all while insisting he should be allowed to be himself. Vivian even calls him out on this in an early episode.
98** In "Stop Will! In the Name of Love", Will starts getting overprotective towards Ashley when he starts seeing some similarities between himself and Ashley's date. Will's own date Samantha calls Will out on his DoubleStandard for acting hostile towards a boy who does the same things as him just because said boy is putting the moves on his little cousin.
99** In one later-season episode, Will teases Carlton for being a workaholic who never made any friends outside of Will. Except by that point in the series, most of Will's old friends had been subjected to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome and he pretty well exclusively hung out with Carlton and Jazz - and the latter less often than he used to.
100* HypocriticalHeartwarming:
101** He's made a few questionable moves with women. But he will not watch anyone do the same thing to Ashley.
102** He picks on Carlton all the time and has made quite a few jokes about him being too "white". But he is quick to defend him against anyone who puts him down, especially the fraternity president.
103* InformedAttribute: Is considered more socially adept than Carlton, and is indeed more streetwise and more successful with women than Carlton - but apart from some superficial charm, his own social obliviousness exacerbates situations on a regular basis, and by the later seasons his only friend apart from Carlton is Jazz. The show seems to confuse natural charisma with social skills. To their credit, Will does have a lot of natural charisma with how he's able to land so many girls and his natural talent as a car salesman.
104* InnocentlyInsensitive: He can be a real {{Jerkass}}, but quite often it's because of this trope -- he just doesn't understand how mean he comes across. On the occasions when he does, he's prone to going MyGodWhatHaveIDone.
105* InsistentTerminology: His collection of dolls -- er, action figures.
106* IWasBeatenByAGirl: In one episode everyone mocks Will after he loses a fight against a female boxing trainer. When he decides to arrange a rematch, Hilary is shocked that he WouldHitAGirl.
107* JerkassHasAPoint: Quite a few times Will shows himself to be the more mature and reasonable person in the room. Examples are "Homeboy, Sweet Homeboy" were he castigates Vivian for her disrespectful attitude towards his friend Trey, "Mistaken Identity" where he is much more aware of racial biases with American police departments than Carlton and "Home is Where the Heart Attack Is" where he chews out Carlton for not seeing Phil in the hospital. And when Phil, and Vivian to a lesser extent, blame him for Ashley's misbehavior, Will quickly points out it was Phil's temper that caused the young girl to run away; in the same episode, when Ashley tries to blame Will for her getting in trouble, Will correctly states that she shouldn't have been at an adult event while still being a teenager.
108* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: An immature slacker and troublemaker, and he frequently makes fun of the Banks (especially Carlton and Philip) but he genuinely cares for everyone in the family. In serious situations he always stands up for his uncle or his cousins.
109* LadykillerInLove: Even if he's TheCasanova, he falls in love with Lisa in season 5.
110* LargeHam: Let's face it, a good chunk of the show hinged on Will being this.
111* LikeASonToMe: For Uncle Phil. The genius of the show is that Phil is Will's uncle by ''marriage''; Aunt Viv is his blood relative.
112* LoopholeAbuse: Will wears his Bel Air Prep blazer inside out.
113* LovableJock: He played basketball in high school.
114* LovableSexManiac: Quite obsessed with scoring women. One episode shows his list of "college activities" only have ''sororities'' on it. As Will puts it: "From Alpha to Gamma to Bad Mamma Jamma!"
115* {{Manchild}}: Especially in the later seasons and particularly when it came to his way with the ladies. Carlton even called him out on this in an episode and called the behavior acceptable in high school, but an embarrassment now that they're in college.
116* MirrorCharacter:
117** He and Uncle Phil are both quick-minded, overprotective, have underprivileged backgrounds, huge fans of Malcolm X, Phil was TheCasanova and TheAce at Will's age, and have a knack for great put downs. The biggest difference between them is that Uncle Phil is serious and focused on the matter at hand while Will is goofy and free-spirited.
118** While he and Carlton are ClashingCousins for being opposite, both can be arrogant, blind to their own faults and always ready to point out the flaws of the other. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And they both]] like ''Series/BeverlyHills90210''.
119** As Carlton points out, to his father. Like his father, he's TheSocialExpert, and tends to try to get by on just his charm. Unlike his father, however, he cares about his family and has a sense of responsibility, however slight.
120* MisplacedRetribution: Tends to happen with Will quite a bit, given that he winds up as TheScapegoat a lot. He tends to get blamed for things that aren't directly his fault simply because he has an incredibly minor connection to what happened. He's quick to try StoppingTheBlameGame when it occurs.
121* MotiveDecay: The series starts out with him in Bel-Air so he can get a quality education. He might not be the best student ever, but he eventually graduates from high school and convinces his mother to let him stay so he can go to college. After that transition, though, there's much less emphasis on his education, as Will focuses on work, relationship, and general hijinks. This becomes a plot point in the GrandFinale, as Will realizes he got off track and needs to finish what he came out there to do.
122* MrViceGuy: Even through all of his faults and idiosyncrasies, Will is a genuinely decent guy.
123* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
124** After Judge Robertson dies of a heart attack right after Will tells him to drop dead. Will, however, is the only one who is miserable since almost ''everyone'' hated the guy.
125** His reaction from the middle to the end of "Just Say Yo...", especially after a tearful and utterly remorseful Will admits to the family that the drugs that nearly killed Carlton was his, but that he had been given them by someone else due to the stresses he had with his job, school and sports wiping him out and just put them in his locker.
126* TheNicknamer: Has a habit of calling people by shorter versions of their names (Uncle Phil, Aunt Viv, Hil, Ash, "C" for Carlton, "G" for Geoffrey). He also gives Carlton many insulting nicknames related to his short stature.
127* OneHeadTaller: Not including the women, he's this to Carlton, Geoffrey ''and'' Jazz. The only recurring character that's taller than him is the 6'5" Uncle Phil.
128* PaperTiger: Despite putting up an image of a tough guy, Will gets his ass handed to him quite often throughout the show. He even got knocked out by ''Carlton'' once while the latter had his hands glued to his head and on two occasions Geoffrey was able to physically overpower him. (Mind you Geoffrey was a sparring partner to ''Chuck Norris'' at a past job so this isn't too shocking)
129* ParentNeverCameBackFromTheStore: Will's dad ran off this way when he was five. He didn't come back until years later.
130* PhraseCatcher: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wCaX9pFDWU Any variation of "This is all your fault."]]
131* RagsToRiches: The premise of the show.
132* ReallyGetsAround: Before settling with Lisa, Will pretty much had a different girlfriend per episode.
133* RealMenHateAffection: Anytime Carlton wants to hug Will or even spend time talking to one another, Will is openly annoyed or uncomfortable. Lampshaded in the flashback episode "For Sale by Owner".
134* RoughOveralls: Will wears these often in the "inner city youth" variant, including in the first episode, and with the 90s-popular variant of one strap loose often. He's much more StreetSmart and urban than the rest of the Banks, especially his cousin Carlton.
135* SadClown: When his father walks out on him, his veneer of indifference completely cracks.
136-->'''Will:''' How come he don't want me, man?
137* TheScapegoat: In later seasons, this doesn't go unlampshaded.
138-->'''Will:''' What is that, the theme of this family? 'When in doubt blame Will.'
139* SelfDeprecation: Believe it or not, yes. As highly as he thinks of himself, whenever Will has an ImagineSpot of himself in the future, he envisions himself as [[FutureLoser a sleazy, unkempt and usually overweight (namely with an oversized butt) old man.]]
140* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Manly Man to Carlton's Sensitive Guy.
141* SignificantWardrobeShift: In the final two seasons, he tones down his wardrobe from garish and flashy to composed and far more mature wearing sweaters or hoodies with more muted color tones. This parallels his CharacterDevelopment to becoming more mature and trying to forge his own path to success, not that it stops him from enjoying life to the fullest.
142* TheSlacker: Usually more interested in his own personal pleasures than his academic studies. Lampshaded by Carlton in season 6.
143-->'''Carlton:''' You're a slacker. You say you want things but you're never willing to work for it. You never make the sacrifice. You think you're just gonna charm your way through.
144* SmarterThanYouLook: He may act like a total goof-off and slacker, but he's actually quite bright. Princeton University was thinking about accepting him, much to Carlton's [[JawDrop absolute shock]].
145* SpecialAesopVictim: He himself becomes this in "Bullets Over Bel Air" when [[spoiler: he gets shot by a mugger while trying to save Carlton.]]
146* StepfordSmiler: In a dramatic sense, probably most evident in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse." Behind all his fun-loving, womanizing, crazy antic ways, he is a scared little boy desperate for a trustworthy father figure in his life, and is deeply crushed and upset when the man that fathered him is no father at all. He grieves this realization and becomes a real man ... and realizes that Phil is the real father figure in his life.
147* StreetSmart: He's the experienced, streetwise (but not necessarily BookDumb) teenager from West Philadelphia, in contrast to Carlton who is book smart but sheltered.
148* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Like any loyal son of Philly, Will loves his cheesesteaks. He has also shown a huge fondness of sweet potato pie.
149* VagueAge: Just how old he's supposed to be seems to lack consistency, especially in the first season. While it's commonly suggested that the famous title song fight and subsequent move-in to Bel-Air happened when he was 15, the ages of the women that he dates in Season 1 are clearly adult aged.
150* VitriolicBestBuds: With Carlton. The 'vitriolic' part gets downplayed over time.
151* WhatTheHellHero: While his schemes and girl chasing was mostly harmless, there were two incidents in particular that ''really'' crossed the line and earned him serious wrath from uncle Phil.
152** He and Carlton pawned one of Vivian's necklaces to get extra funds for trading stock and lost it all because the tip they got turned out to be bad, which would be bad enough on its own, but Carlton got the tip through insider trading, which is a federal crime.
153** By far the worst thing Will did in the whole series was trying to trick a girl into sleeping with him by staging a fake wedding (Jazz played the preacher) because she didn't want to have sex before marriage. He came to his senses at the last minute and didn't go through with it, but had he done so, it could very likely have been considered rape-by-deception. Tellingly, when Phil finds out, he responds with TranquilFury instead of his usual rage and it takes him ''three years'' to think of a punishment fitting the action.
154* WouldntHitAGirl: Which leads to a humiliating defeat at the hands of an attractive female boxing trainer. [[spoiler: He eventually stands up to her, countering all of her punches, which actually unleashes her kinky side and she throws herself at him]].
155* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Is often told this by Uncle Phil in his ToughLove ways. One good example is when Uncle Phil chews him out for running away from anything that challenges him when his first semester of college is filled with fluff classes except Western Philosophy, which he dropped almost immediately.
156* YouAreNotMyFather: When Lou comes back into Will's life after having run out on him 14 years ago, Lou then abandons him ''again'' for another trucking job. This is the final exchange Will and Lou share:
157-->'''Lou:''' It was great seeing you, son.\
158'''Will:''' You too... ''Lou''.
159[[/folder]]
160
161[[folder:Philip Banks]]
162!!Philip Banks (Creator/JamesAvery)
163[[quoteright:321:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/james_avery_fresh_prince.jpg]]
164[[caption-width-right:321:''"'''DO I LOOK LIKE A WHITE GUY NAMED WARD?!'''"'']]
165
166->"''Well speaking as a lawyer, I can only say that your daughter fits the criminal profile to a T, right down to the sloping forehead, and the wide jaws suitable for grains and small rodents!"''
167
168A successful attorney (later appointed Superior Court Judge) who doesn't try to hide his reluctance to Will settling in with the Banks. Spends a good portion of the show dealing with Will's antics and help fix any mess made.
169----
170* ActionDad: Phil has several of these moments:
171** In "Mistaken Identity", when Phil sees that Will and Carlton staged an obvious EngineeredPublicConfession, he goes to the police station. When the racist cop refuses to let them out of their cell, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW9pklBXqk4 Phil unleashes a verbal ass-whoopin' the likes of which the poor bastard had never seen]].
172** In "Banks Shot", he out-hustles a pool hustler who tried to cheat Will out of thousands of dollars.
173** When the parents of Ashley's school bully advise that they seek psychiatric help for her in "The Mother of All Battles". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq-l2Oq_8lI Long story short, shit gets real]].
174** When Will's father Lou shows up in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse". As Lou is preparing to leave Will again, Phil gives him one hell of a CallingTheOldManOut speech.
175* AffectionateNickname: Affectionately called "Big guy" by Carlton.
176* AMFMCharacterization: He enjoys {{classical music}} and according to Vivian, he liked Music/JamesBrown in his youth, even having hair like him.
177* AngerBornOfWorry: He demonstrates this whenever his kids (Will included) go beyond their usual shenanigans and put themselves in danger. A particularly strong example is Ashley lying about going to a fraternity party in "It's A Wonderful Lie." He's ''furious'' but makes it clear that he's especially concerned about the danger she put herself in.
178* BadassOnPaper: Phil considers a lot of his early accomplishments to be this. For example, he became the first black president of the Young Farmer's Association, but that was only because he was the only one who wanted the position that year and was running unopposed. He also never intended to start a Civil Rights protest by using a "whites only"-bathroom, he had just drunk too much lemonade and really needed to go. Will points out that even if he didn't think what he did was all that special, other people did... and maybe that's enough.
179* BaldOfAuthority: Not a leader, per se, but more than a few plots show that he's in charge of the family.
180* BaldnessAngst: Occasionally, though he mostly worries about how it causes him to look old. After one episode where he tries wigs he decides he doesn't need hair to be good at what he does.
181* BaldnessMockery: Will often teases him over his bald head. He usually replies with a snark back or a DopeSlap.
182* BerserkButton:
183** Don't take away his Thanksgiving dinner or he'll give you a legal beatdown.
184** He can take the usual [[YouAreFat fat jokes]] in stride, but what pisses him off is people going for the low-hanging fruit. Geoffrey gets a [[TranquilFury chilling]] lecture on how to be more creative with his insults after basically calling Phil a butterball.
185* BestServedCold: Done a couple of times:
186** Normally, Philip would yell or threaten Will the instant he does something insanely wrong. But in one case Will did something so bad, that it took three years for Phil to think up the ultimate punishment for Will, apparently involving ''medieval torture''. Will really had it coming, too -- he wanted to sleep with a girl who wouldn't give it up before marriage, so he staged a fake wedding with Jazz playing the preacher, just to get her into bed. He came to his senses at the last second, but ''damn.''
187** When a cop with a grudge against Phil arrests him and Will when they're WronglyAccused of solicitation, Phil threatens to release the wrath of God on him. Finally the cop lets Will and Phil out and assures them there'll be no publicity and no records. He then asks if there are no hard feelings, and Phil replies "no chance". The cop has an OhCrap look on his face and realizes that Phil is going to make him regret this.
188* BewareTheNiceOnes: In most problematic situations Phil is initially courteous and civil, but heaven help you if you antagonize him or make things difficult, ''especially'' if his kids are involved. A shining example of this is when Phil confronts the racist cops who have placed Will and Carlton in jail during "Mistaken Identity." When the cops are dismissive and haughty about Phil's initial civility, he unleashes such a spectacular verbal beatdown on them that the audience roars with applause.
189* BigEater: It ends up giving him a heart attack in an episode, when he eats a cheeseburger while he's struggling to lose weight and following a strict diet.
190* BigFun: Averted most of the time, but when he lets loose, such as his pool hustle in the "Banks Shot," he can certainly qualify.
191* BumblingDad: Averted. He has his moments of stupidity, but he's portrayed as competent and knowledgeable way more often than other sitcom dads.
192* ButtMonkey: Constantly on the receiving end of jokes about his weight, baldness, and grumpy temperament, usually by Will.
193* TheCasanova: In his younger years. Aunt Viv does not like to be reminded.
194* CharacterCatchphrase: He tends to shout "WILL!" whenever Will pisses him off.
195* CategoryTraitor: Several episodes reveal that he secretly fears that he's a sellout for becoming a high powered corporate attorney and leaving his old neighborhood. At first, Will thinks this of him, but he grows out of it as they spend more time together.
196* CoolUncle: Zig-Zagged. He and Will get on each other's nerves occasionally and he is not the typical easygoing uncle, but at the end of the day, he's awesome and Will learned to respect him as a true father figure. Ironically, in the early episodes Vivian was much more of a CoolAunt, but by the end of the show Will is closer to Uncle Phil.
197* CountryMouse: As revealed in an early episode, Phil secretly grew up in a ''very'' rural part of North Carolina, was nicknamed Zeke, had a pet pig, was the first black president of the Young Farmers, and engaged in a civil rights protest when he drank too much lemonade in town and had to use a whites-only bathroom. While Phil considers these stories embarrassing at first and is furious at Will for leaking them, he eventually learns to embrace both his past and parents.
198* DeadpanSnarker: Not quite to the extent of Geoffrey but he has his moments throughout the series.
199* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: He threatens to do this to Will and Carlton. He never visibly follows through on it though.
200-->'''Phil:''' No dates, no charge cards, no movies, no television, no phone calls, NO FOOD!
201* DependingOnTheWriter: In some episodes, Uncle Phil is a stern, disapproving, yet loving, father figure to Will, who has his best interests at heart but is concerned Will is making bad choices. In other episodes he seems to resent Will’s presence and hints he wouldn’t be upset if Will just disappeared forever.
202* DoomItYourself: Phil is an excellent lawyer and an even better judge, but his skills as a handyman are less than impressive. His attempt at fixing the stove burns Geoffrey's eyebrows off, his attempt at fixing the toaster causes a piece of toast to fly into Geoffrey's eye, his attempt at fixing the static on the phone completely kills the line, and his attempt at fixing the sink causes a leak. At one point, Vivian has to use a LysistrataGambit to stop him from doing any more damage to the house.
203* DopeSlap: It's rare to find an episode where he ''doesn't'' do this, usually to Carlton but Will also gets it.
204* DoWrongRight: After Geoffrey makes a jab about Phil's weight, Phil [[StealthPun chews him out]] over the laziness of said joke.
205-->'''Phil:''' You could be poetic...''"His corpulent flesh rolls around his bones like a thick chocolate pudding!"''...or scientific...''"He is so huge that food comes to him from the gravitational pull alone!"''...or, you could be quizzical! ''"Is that your head, or is your neck blowing a bubble?"'' You could be ribald, ironic, vaudevillian, whatever! But be creative! '''You got that?'''
206* EducationPapa: Unsurprisingly given how education opened up doors for him in his own life. Phil takes the education of his own children very seriously, which causes friction when Hilary drops out of college or when Will starts trying to coast by taking easy classes. He's also initially adamant that Ashley not transfer to a public school but relents when she proves that she'll still receive a good education.
207* EmbarrassingNickname: "Zeke," by his parents.
208* ExiledToTheCouch: He occasionally puts his foot in his mouth badly enough that Vivian kicks him out of their bedroom. At least on one occasion, he screws up so badly that Vivian forces him to sleep in the back garden!
209-->'''Will:''' Geoffery, prepare Mr. Banks' couch!
210* FamilyMan: Uncle Phil's definition of a ''real man'' - there for his family no matter what (which he certainly is).
211%%* FatBastard: Flirts with this trope a ''lot'', but it seems to be DependingOnTheWriter. In his worst episodes he plays the trope ''very'' straight, but in his better episodes he subverts or even averts it.
212* FatComicRelief: One of the many running gags was the jokes about Uncle Phil being overweight. These would usually come from Will, Geoffrey or Jazz, who really make a KarmaHoudini out of themselves, as they're often in no position to snark at them, thanks to his HAHAHANo response.
213* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: In one episode, it's stated that he always goes to Halloween parties as a judge. In the end, he simply wears street clothes and says he's "someone who doesn't want to be here."
214-->'''Hilary:''' ''(at her costume party)'' Daddy, you need a costume.\
215'''Uncle Phil:''' (''in casual clothes, unamused)'' I'm in my costume- I'm Comfortable Man.\
216'''Ashley:''' Is he a super-hero?\
217'''Uncle Phil:''' Sort of. He has super-human bill-paying powers, so he gets to dress however he wants.
218* FormerlyFit: An episode that flashed back to over a decade previous showed that he was slimmer and more conventionally attractive before he got into the wealthy world of high-powered law. It's also mentioned several times that he played football in both high school and college and was quite good at it.
219* GeniusBruiser: Phil is a very big and very strong man who played football in his youth. He's also a highly skilled lawyer and eventual judge who won scholarships to Yale, Princeton, Wharton and Talladega Tech.
220* GoodParents: Despite his many flaws, Phil is an excellent and loving father to all ''five'' of his children, Will very much included. He's there for them physically, emotionally, and financially whenever they're upset or even just a little stumped by their homework. This is best shown when Will's father returns and Phil's constant presence is contrasted with Lou's perpetual absence.
221-->'''Phil:''' ''(yelling at Lou)'' Oh bull, ''bull!'' Will is not a coat that you hang in the closet, then pick it up when you're ready to wear it. His life goes on. He's not supposed to be here for you, you're supposed to be here for ''him''!
222* GrumpyOldMan: Younger than most examples of this trope (he's in his 40s) but he has the mannerisms and temperament to a T.
223* HaHaHaNo: He does this quite often, especially to Will and Carlton. If it sounds stupid or outrageous, expect him to laugh along with the kids before ''exploding''.
224* HairTriggerTemper: "Uncle Phil is a very big man, with a ''very short fuse.'' Bad combination. ''Very bad combination''."
225* HappilyMarried: To Vivian. Despite their arguments, they are mostly happy together. However, there is a two-part estrangement episode in the last season.
226* HiddenDepths: Will initially dismisses him as an uptight wealthy person who lost touch with the black community. Turns out that he was in the Civil Rights movement (and, it is implied, more Malcolm X than Martin Luther King) and has never stopped fighting that fight (though he does it in different ways) He also retains enough of the brawling and pool-playing skills he picked up during his street days to take on people half his age.
227* HypocriticalHeartwarming: His treatment of Will raises serious questions about if he actually likes his nephew at all. If anyone else mistreats Will, however, nothing can protect you from his wrath.
228* ICallItVera: One episode features his custom pool cue, named Lucille. He is hustling a pool hustler, and in the first game asks Geoffrey to hand him "one of those stick thingies." Then, in the second game, where the stakes are far higher, he tells Geoffrey to "break out Lucille."
229* IWasQuiteALooker: In a flashback taking place from before he became a corporate lawyer and still lived in the old neighborhood, he is shown to be svelte, good-looking and have a full head of hair.
230* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: As stern and short tempered as he is, he is also a very loving father and uncle. [[DependingOnTheWriter Mostly.]]
231* LargeAndInCharge: He’s a very big man, and the patriarch of the family.
232* LargeHam: He has his hammy moments, mostly whenever he yells at someone, usually Will.
233* LikeASonToMe: Yes, Will gets on his nerves basically every episode, but Phil clearly sees him as his son regardless. Phil's certainly a better father for Will [[ParentalAbandonment than his biological father is.]]
234* MeanBoss: Phil is a loving parent, but he can be a real {{Jerkass}} to his employees. Geoffrey is so frustrated with the low salary Phil pays him that at one point he quits as butler and refuses to come back until Phil offers him a raise. His [[spoiler:law clerk Edward Haskell]] becomes so fed up with Phil's abuse that he breaks into the Banks' home and robs them blind.
235* MinoredInAssKicking: He's a very intelligent and erudite man who accomplishes his biggest moments of badassery with his knowledge and prefers it that way. That said, he's also a 6'5 former college football star; when sufficiently angered, he will not hesitate to remind people that [[StoutStrength there's still some muscle under his flab]]. Best shown when he punched out an obnoxious father of one of Ashley's classmates, or when he was trapped on an elevator with a {{Jerkass}} who kept smoking cigarettes and refusing to let him use his cell phone even as Vivian was going through labor.
236-->'''Phil:''' Relax Will, I was trained as a lawyer for many years, I was trained in the art of negotiation. Observe. ''[walks up to the man]'' Sir?\
237''[the man turns around; Phil suddenly grabs him by the collar]''\
238'''Phil:''' [[TranquilFury Give me that damn phone or I'll rip your liver out and eat it RAW.]]
239* MistakenForBadass: Although he was a genuine badass, there was a moment that turned out to be this. In his backstory it is mentioned how he dared to use a bathroom that was exclusively for whites, which many people assumed he did as a sign of protest against segregation, and to support black rights. He then confesses to Will that he wasn't protesting or anything, he just needed to go to the bathroom, and there was only that one available.
240* MommasBoy: While Phil loves both of his parents, he is shown to be particularly close to his mother. He's ecstatic when she visits, protective to the point of being overbearing, and is greatly ashamed when she calls him out on his more negative traits. And when the father of Ashley's school bully insulted his mother, Phil immediately decked him.
241* NotSoAboveItAll: He's one of the most serious characters, especially compared to Will and Carlton, but still has his silly, irrational moments for the sake of a quick gag.
242* ObfuscatingStupidity: In one episode, Will loses some money to a pool hustler, and then Uncle Phil loses some more trying to get it back. Then, as soon as the hustler agrees to ''another'' round at higher stakes:
243-->'''Uncle Phil:''' Geoffrey? ''[[LetsGetDangerous Break out Lucille]]''.
244* OmnidisciplinaryLawyer: In the present day, he is a business lawyer mostly doing corporate mergers. However, in his youth he was a very skilled civil rights and anti-poverty lawyer. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the rights of criminal defendants, which he's displayed on multiple occasions.
245* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
246** If he starts laughing after a really bad prank or screwup of Will's, that's usually a good sign to run for your life.
247** Any time he loses his appetite; one notable instance of this was, unsurprisingly when Will's deadbeat father shows up unannounced at his house. Phil is quick to excuse himself before he does something regrettable.
248* OpenMouthInsertFoot: The cause of many of his ExiledToTheCouch moments.
249-->'''Will:''' Wow, Uncle Phil, I knew you had a king-size appetite, but ''both'' feet?
250* PapaWolf: Mess with his family in any way and may God help you. [[LikeASonToMe And yes that includes Will.]]
251** In the episode "Mistaken Identity," when a racist police officer arrests his son Carlton and nephew Will, he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW9pklBXqk4 sees right through]] an obvious EngineeredPublicConfession. When said cop refuses to let them out of their cell, Uncle Phil unleashes a verbal ass-whoopin' the likes of which the poor bastard had never seen.
252** When the parents of Ashley's school bully advise that they seek psychiatric help for her. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq-l2Oq_8lI Long story short, shit gets real]].
253** A few occasions where he [[RunningGag threw Jazz out of the house]] was after the latter made unflattering advances at Hilary. One of which occurs when he begrudgingly allows Jazz to substitute for a sick Geoffrey. When he and Vivian confront Jazz about destroying his briefcase, Hilary, who’s crying over an unrequited love, runs to Vivian’s arms. Jazz then takes it upon himself to ask Phil to take Hilary off their hands, which pushes Phil over the edge. Cue Jazz being jettisoned from the house [[ItMakesSenseInContext with a cardboard cutout of Bill Cosby.]]
254** When Will's father Lou shows up. As Lou is preparing to leave... without Will and asks Uncle Phil to let him know... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxQKXNHzT0Y Phil unleashes a verbal beatdown on Lou not seen since the Mistaken Identity.]] And it's glorious.
255** He also out-hustles a pool hustler who tried to cheat Will out of thousands of dollars!
256* ParanoiaGambit: He does this in response to Will's antics once.
257--> '''Phil:''' ...I'm not going to punish you, Will.\
258'''Will:''' [{{Beat}}] ...That's radical, Uncle Phil, [[CrazyEnoughToWork but it just might work.]]\
259'''Phil:''' I'm not going to punish you ''today''. Maybe not even tomorrow. You see, I need to think a long, long time about what I'm going to do with you. I don't know, it might come to me... pfft, in the middle of the night. Or maybe next week, or, a few years from now. In the meantime, why don't you worry about it? Be afraid, Will... (pulls him in close) Be '''very''' afraid.
260* ParentalSubstitute: Eventually proved to be more of a father to Will than his real father ever was. The last episode effectively spells this out and makes it clear that the two consider their relationship that of father and son rather than uncle and nephew.
261* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: On a good day, he's a great example of this, being stern and often harsh but ultimately fair and understanding. On a ''bad'' day, however...
262* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gave several over the course of the series but the most memorable would be the one he gave Lou when the latter was planning on leaving Will ''again''.
263-->'''Phil:''' Sit down.\
264'''Lou:''' ''(starting to leave)'' Ain't got time for no lecture.\
265'''Phil:''' I said sit down, Lou! (Lou stops and sits down on the couch) You know, Will was doing just fine until you showed up. But now that you're back, you have responsibilities to him.\
266'''Lou:''' [[BlatantLies Look, we still gonna take the trip--]]\
267'''Phil:''' [[BigShutUp OH, BULL! BULL!]] Will is not some coat that you hang up in the closet and you pick it up when you're ready to wear it! His life goes on! He's not supposed to be here for you! You're supposed to be there for him!\
268'''Lou:''' (standing back up) Hey, you get off my back! You think I want this?! It! Just! Happened! [[DirtyCoward Now, Will was a baby and I was scared—]]\
269'''Phil:''' Cut the crap, alright?! Cut it! Because I've been there. But I didn't walk out on my family. I was there every single day for them, because that is what a man does!
270* RetiredBadass: While Phil is by no means ''not'' a badass in the current setting of the series, he was also active in Civil Rights crusades in the 1960s, and it's implied that he and Vivian occasionally were involved in protests that turned violent when reminiscing with their old friend Marge. The fact that they are now working from within the system (with Phil as a lawyer and a judge, and Vivian as a professor) to better the lives of black communities as opposed to breaking the law is a point of contention between the Banks parents and Marge.
271* ScaryBlackMan: When he gets angry.
272* SelfMadeMan: Was born a country boy and worked himself up in his career to achieve his current wealth. DiscussedTrope in a episode when Will is too proud to ask for money, and Uncle Phil outright tell there's no such thing as the trope, and he only got where he is because others were willing to lend him a hand along the way.
273* SternTeacher: This is his general parenting style in dealing with Will and Carlton. He loves his boys very much, although he doesn't hesitate to put the fear of God into them with his ScaryBlackMan routine to keep them on the straight and narrow.
274* StoutStrength: Phil might have a spare tire, but he's really strong underneath it.
275* ThreateningMediator: In "Grumpy Young Men", Will and Carlton were bickering because the girl Will likes kisses Carlton in front of him. Philip tells the two that they either settle their differences or he will do it himself.
276* ToughLove: A perfect example occurs in the Season 3 episode "Just Say Yo." Carlton mistakes amphetamines (a recreational drug known as "Speed"), that he finds in Will's locker, for vitamins, and ends up in the hospital. When Will admits to Uncle Phil that the drugs came from his own locker, he has an emotional breakdown out of guilt. Despite the fact that the normally jovial Will is beginning to cry, Phil forces Will to come clean in front of the whole family. After the fact, with Will sobbing over the possibility that he could have seriously hurt Carlton, Uncle Phil embraces him as the episode ends.
277* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Uncle Phil loves his turkey, with "pillowy mounds of mashed potatoes... butter drenched dressing... tiny onions swimming in a sea of cream sauce..."
278* TranquilFury: Occasionally, when he's really angry, he speaks softly, smiles, and even laughs...then he really [[UnstoppableRage explodes]].
279* UglyGuyHotWife: He isn't ugly, but he's definitely overweight. But in true DomCom style, in Vivian, he has a gorgeous, svelte wife. In fact, given the recasting of Janet Hubert-Whitten with Daphne Maxwell Reid, he technically gets ''two''. Unlike most cases, the difference is acknowledged (thanks to Will's constant teasing and Vivian's occasional gentle ribbing), and Vivian makes a point of telling Will that Phil's weight does not bother her "one bit".
280* YouAreFat: Basically, all the jokes about him, usually by Will, Geoffrey, and Jazz.
281* YouAreGrounded: He hands grounding punishments out like candy in the first three seasons when Will and Carlton are in high school. Ashley gets it from time to time as she gets older.
282[[/folder]]
283
284[[folder:Vivian Banks]]
285!!Vivian Banks (Creator/JanetHubert-Whitten, 1990-1993; [[Creator/DaphneReid Daphne Maxwell Reid]], 1993-1996)
286[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/positive_7_aunt_viv.jpg]]
287[[caption-width-right:350:''"Oh, honey, we about to get '''very''' busy here."'']]
288
289->''"We used slang when we were kids! Do you remember our first date? You took one look at me and said, "That is a bad dress!" You could've just said it was a good dress."''
290
291The second-oldest of the Smith sisters, and Will's maternal aunt, who's a well-educated professor at the local university. Unlike Phil, Vivian's far more open and patient with Will when he first moves in with the Banks, and understands that transitioning from inner-city Philadelphia to the ultra-wealthy Bel Air will be difficult for him.
292----
293* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: She celebrates her fortieth birthday in early season 2, suggesting that she was just shy of her 39th birthday when the show began - and already had a college-aged daughter. This isn't impossible of course, but it means that Vivian somehow obtained advanced degrees and took an active part in Civil Rights protests while also having her first child by age 21 at the latest, and her and Phil must have gotten together in their teens.
294* AdvertisedExtra: She rarely contributes to the plot in later seasons, despite still being credited as one of the main characters.
295* AlmightyMom: While Uncle Phil is generally the disciplinarian of the Banks household, Janet Hubert-Whitten had moments that demonstrated you should ''not'' cross Aunt Viv. When Vivian tells Will, Carlton, and Will's friends that none of them are going to a dangerous gangster neighborhood, one of them - a full head taller than Vivian - starts to protest. When Vivian warns him to not test her he immediately and quietly sits back down!
296* AnnoyingPatient: During the last month of her pregnancy.
297* CoolAunt: Compared to her husband, she is more understanding and tolerant of her nephew.
298* EducationMama: She feels strongly about education, to the point where she came down hard on Will and Carlton over them taking black history for granted and more seriously when she talked a smart girl Will was seeing into breaking up with him so that her grades wouldn't be affected (this last one also comes under WellIntentionedExtremist).
299* FlatCharacter: One of the main complaints about Daphne Reid's "bland" portrayal of the character.
300* GoodParents: Although she gets less focus than her husband (especially in later seasons), Vivian is always shown as a good and caring mother.
301* HappilyMarried: To Vivian. Despite their arguments, they are mostly happy together. However, there is a two-part estrangement episode in the last season.
302* HiddenDepths: She was active in the Civil Rights Movement along with Uncle Phil, and participated in the same (occasionally violent) protests. As a young woman, she dropped out of high school to run off with a guy, and cleaned hotel rooms to put herself through night school to earn her degree. She also knows enough about black history to teach the subject at a high school level.
303* HoldMyGlasses: If she starts taking her earrings off, ''[[MamaBear run]].''
304* HotTeacher: In early seasons she was a professor played by the very attractive Janet Hubert-Whitten. Later on, her job is almost never mentioned.
305* {{Housewife}}: Even before the actress switch, a throwaway line reveals she quit her job as a professor to spend more time with her family, becoming a homemaker in the end.
306* IgnoredExpert: When Ashley secretly transferred out of Bel-Air Prep and enrolled in public school, Phil was outraged when he found out. He intended to make her transfer back and didn't care at all about the merits of the public school. Vivian takes issue with this--saying he didn't bother to consult her despite her history in education.
307* LethalChef: She has a bad habit of burning stuff. This is one of the main reasons why Vivian's so desperate to keep Geoffrey in their employment.
308* LetsGetDangerous: If she starts to take off her earrings it's time to run.
309* LysistrataGambit: Employs this a LOT. Often overlaps with ExiledToTheCouch.
310* MamaBear: She was usually a [[WomenAreWiser calm, collected voice of reason]] when compared to the quick-tempered Uncle Phil. But if anyone ''ever'' dared to put her children or nephew in any sort of danger, all Hell would break loose.
311** In one episode, Will and Carlton are racially profiled for driving Uncle Phil's law partner's Mercedes in an affluent neighborhood; the two are put in jail and forced to confess on live TV to alert Phil and Viv to what had happened. Phil ended up having to hold Vivian back when she stormed into the prison, started openly insulting the officers, and, when [[BerserkButton dismissed with a "We're busy,"]], [[LetsGetDangerous took off her earrings]] with "Oh, honey, we about to get VERY busy up in here."
312** One episode saw Carlton befriending some tough black men in Compton using his business skills. The group was planning to go to [=MacArthur Park=]--an extremely dangerous area--when Vivian showed up to get her son and Will. Upon hearing their plans, she told ''all'' of the young men outright that none of them would be going to [=MacArthur=] Park. The biggest of the group--two heads taller that Aunt Viv and with biceps about the size of her head--stood up to protest, and she ''instantly'' shut him down: "Boy, do NOT test me." The huge guy proceeded to sheepishly sit back down.
313** When Will's DisappearedDad Lou came to Bel-Air to reconnect with his son briefly, Vivian was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, unlike Phil. But when she learned that Lou was planning to abandon Will again to go on a business venture, she made it clear that she considered her nephew one of her own children and wasn't going to allow Lou to hurt him: "If you walk out of Will's life now, don't you ''ever'' come back."
314* NotSoAboveItAll: She's usually more reserved and reasonable than Philip, but she can lose it when a matter specifically bothers her. If she starts taking her earrings off, ''[[OhCrap be warned]]''.
315* OutOfFocus: After the actress switch she rarely played a major role in an episode and was entirely absent from several.
316* ParentalSubstitute: Not that Vi wasn't a good mother to Will (in fact, far from it), but she is, in every sense of the word, Will's second mom, especially given that Vi is thousands of miles away in Philadelphia.
317* RetiredBadass: As mentioned in Phil's section above, Vivian was very active in the Civil Rights Movement, and it's implied that she and Phil occasionally had to defend themselves from systemic violence in the process.
318* SassyBlackWoman: She can slip into this when she gets upset, especially in early seasons.
319* SternTeacher: During her tenure teaching black history at Bel-Air Prep, she made Will and Carlton miserable with a hefty workload [[note]] She set Will and Carlton an essay when she learned they expected to coast through the class[[/note]] . On the other hand, the other students loved her.
320* {{Tsundere}}: Especially in later seasons, she's often snapping at Phil and getting mad for something he said or did. That said, they still have their loving moments.
321* UglyGuyHotWife: Hot Wife to Philip's Ugly Guy. Will [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this with disbelief when they announce Vivian is pregnant with another child.
322* WomenAreWiser: While Phil is far from a BumblingDad and is actually a serious, competent father, his wife Vivian is still portrayed as more levelheaded and usually wins all the arguments with him.
323[[/folder]]
324
325[[folder:Carlton Banks]]
326!!Carlton Banks (Creator/AlfonsoRibeiro)
327[[quoteright:307:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fresh_prince_carlton_banks.jpg]]
328[[caption-width-right:307:''"I'm getting ready for ''Soul Train''. I believe there's dancing involved."'']]
329
330->''"For a long time it gave me nightmares, having to witness an injustice like that. It was a constant reminder of how unfair this world can be. I can still hear them taunting him. "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." ...How come they just couldn't give him some cereal?!"''
331
332The middle child of the Banks family who strives to get into Princeton and be a successful lawyer like his dad. More confident in the law and order in general, Carlton's at odds with Will more than frequently, though by the later half of the series he becomes TheLancer.
333----
334* AllegedlyDateless: In contrast to [[TheCasanova Will]], he’s always referred to be as hopeless with girls and as someone who has trouble finding dates. However throughout the show he has more onscreen dates than both his beautiful sisters (justified considering their respective amounts of screen-time), he has been hit on by girls numerous times (although Carlton usually screws up with them anyways), and at least four girls actually picked him over Will.
335* AMFMCharacterization: He's a huge fan of Music/TomJones and will dance to "It's Not Unusual" at will. He also enjoys Music/BarryManilow and doesn't share Will's enthusisasm for rap and/or hip-hop, higlighting how square he is.
336* AngstComa: When Carlton fails to get into Princeton.
337* BewareTheSillyOnes: His short stature and overall behavior aside, Carlton actually managed to knock out Will on more than one occasion, whether it be by one punch, or even a blow from his elbow. He once even let Will take a fall from a treehouse by releasing the ladder after Will had started descending it, this after having taken yet another dig at Carlton's height. And then there's the time that Carlton meets a bunch of Will's old friends, all of them tough guys, and it doesn't take long for Carlton to be acting and talking as tough and badass as them, having earned their respect and a place in their crew, which leaves Will absolutely baffled. He also manages to put Jazz's abusive sister in her place while still acting like a gentleman.
338* BlackAndNerdy: He serves as a foil to his much cooler cousin Will.
339* BookSmart: He’s a straight-A student, president of his schools glee club, and reads the dictionary for fun.
340* BreakTheHaughty: Quite a few times.
341* BumblingSidekick: Becomes this to Will in later seasons.
342* ButtMonkey: Always on the receiving end of Will’s jokes and insults. In their rivalry, Will usually comes out on top. After the first few seasons he is flanderized into a big loser who is made fun of by nearly everyone.
343* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Carlton was introduced in Season 1 as an incredibly preppy and pompous SmugSnake playing no more than a [[TheRival rival]] or {{Foil}} to Will. Recurring emotional breakdowns and being a ButtMonkey occurred in the next seasons; and eventually became the complete nerdy goof everyone loves and remembers.
344* ChildishOlderSibling: He's a big {{Manchild}}, while Ashley and sometimes even ''Nicky'' are more mature than him.
345* ClarkKentOutfit: He may be short, but he could still make a few men feel jealous.
346* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Much like his cousin, he has a very goofy and over-the-top side to his personality despite his preppiness.
347* ComedicSociopathy: At times, usually when money's involved. One time he said in Uncle Phil's proximity:
348-->'''Carlton:''' It's my property, I'm gonna inherit it after the big guy takes his bungee jump!
349* TheComicallySerious: He’s a very cultured, ambitious and intelligent snob who tends to be very pretentious and dramatic to the point that he becomes just as comedic as Will despite being his polar opposite.
350* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
351** While the Carlton Dance is very goofy, Carlton has been shown to be a very able dancer in the Season 5 episode "Sooooul Train". Counts as an actor allusion since Alfonso Ribeiro used to be one of Music/MichaelJackson's backup dancers. Now, if anyone can pick Will's jaw up from the floor. There's also his strip-tease in Season 2's finale, "Strip-Tease For Two", to what sounds very much like the music from [[Music/{{Thriller}} "Billie Jean"]]. He even throws in a Michael Jackson yell.
352** Despite his childish behavior, he's very capable of putting others in their place.
353* DisappointingOlderSibling: To Ashley, mostly in later seasons, where she is very dismissive of him and almost never says anything nice to him at all. In early seasons, Ashley has nothing against him, she just gets along with Will better. Justified, as he becomes much more immature in later seasons, while Ashley becomes snarkier and ruder.
354* DitzyGenius: He's very book smart, but also extremely immature and naive, especially in later seasons. For example, in the episode where he loses his virginity, the woman tells him he can kiss her good-bye in the morning and Carlton replies with, "What time should I come back?"
355* DumbassTeenageSon: One of the rare cases when a teenage son is this trope without being lazy or BookDumb. But he's still childish and has no common sense, usually acting as a foil for Will and even his father Phil at times, who tells him to "Shut up" every now and then.
356* {{Expy}}: He shares a few traits with [[Series/FamilyTies Alex P. Keaton]]. They're both preppy conservative Republicans, who are highly intelligent and obsessed with their college and future. They're also both relatively short and plan to go to Princeton.
357* ExtracurricularEnthusiast: In high school. Captain of the debate team, straight A student, leader of the glee club, editor of the yearbook..
358* {{Fanboy}}: Of Music/TomJones, Creator/WilliamShatner and Creator/MacaulayCulkin. Notably, he manages to completely drive William Shatner up and down the wall with his ''Star Trek''-related humor against all of Will's advice not to keep it up.
359* {{Flanderization}}: Carlton started off as being un-hip and unathletic, but socially savvy and popular in his own setting. As time goes on, his social awkwardness and naivete dominate his character.
360* {{Foil}}: Most of the show is based on the interactions between him and Will, because they are total opposite in every way.
361* FriendlyEnemy: To Will, mostly in season 1. Later evolves into VitriolicBestBuds, and then later into HeterosexualLifePartners.
362* FriendlyRivalry: There's always a bit of competition between him and Will, even though they become best friends in later seasons.
363* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Hangs out with Will and Jazz for years, but never develops a friendship with the latter independently from Will. Justified in that Jazz is even more "street" than Will and doesn't particularly respect Carlton's preppiness or naivete, nor does Carlton particularly like Jazz' crassness or general sleaziness.
364* TheGamblingAddict: In a couple of episodes. One particular instance is when he gets too absorbed in gambling in Vegas, spending all of his and Will's traveling fund in the process, forcing them to find a quick way to get money for the trip home.
365* GoshDarnItToHeck: Actual quote: "Heck, you guys! ''Heck!''"
366* HeightAngst: Zig-zagged. He usually doesn’t seem to care about his short height, but in a few episodes he acts annoyed with Will’s endless short jokes about him, or admits he’s jealous because Will is taller and more popular.
367* HeroicBSOD:
368** When Will gets shot by a mugger while out with Carlton, a badly shaken Carlton spends the entire episode angry and withdrawn, expresses a lack of faith in the justice system (a stark departure from his ''naive'' faith in the justice system in earlier seasons) and begins carrying a loaded gun with him for "self-defence" - but it's implied he might have gone out to find the mugger himself had Will not stopped him.
369** After going through a HumiliationConga in Season 6, Carlton becomes so despondent and self-pitying he skips a Princeton interview and briefly runs away (though, considering he was in his early 20s by that point, Will might have been slightly overreacting to what was effectively Carlton going alone to a bar to drown his sorrows).
370* HeterosexualLifePartners: Becomes this with Will later on, especially in college where they both rarely spend time with anyone else.
371* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Sorry, Carlton, but you can't [[NeverMyFault blame Will]] for [[spoiler:your failure to get into Princeton near the end of season 3 by trying to emulate him rather than being yourself for the recruiter]].
372* HopelessSuitor: A bit of a running gag in season 4 (and, to a lesser extent, season 5). Whenever he is interested in some girl, he is always rejected.
373* HumiliationConga: Gets a particularly bad one in a short amount of time in season six. First he's fired from his job as assistant talent coordinator for ''Hilary'' in favor of Will, then gets rejected from several attempts to pad his résumé, including Bob Dole's campaign headquarters, got passed over for a job he was certain he had in the bag, and ultimately found himself skipping an interview with a Princeton scout to hang out at a local blues bar.
374* HypocriticalHumor: He accused Will of being too immature more than once, despite being a ManChild himself.
375* IdenticalGrandson: He looks just like the younger version of Philip.
376* InnocenceLost: This happens to Carlton in "Bullets over Bel-Air" when Will get shot when protecting Carlton from a mugger. He's so traumatized by the event that he starts to believe that the whole system of law and order that's he's believed in for his entire life is a lie, so he decides to take matters into his own hands by buying a gun.
377** The sight of Carlton talking and acting like this is confronting and just so ''shocking'', mostly because it's ''Carlton'' of all people.
378** What's even more confronting is that, when Will demands that Carlton hand over the gun and Carlton does so, Will opens the barrel of the gun to reveal that ''it was loaded'', causing him to break down crying, most likely because he realizes that his cousin's innocence is gone forever.
379* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: Lampshaded and played for laugh in one episode.
380-->'''Carlton:''' You can't understand and respect women because you're not in touch with your feminine side.\
381'''Will:''' And you know what your problem is? You're not in touch with ''anybody'''s feminine side.
382* InsufferableGenius: Especially towards Will. In one episode, Carlton and Will go on a game show and Carlton's habit of answering questions in a smug, long-winded manner nearly costs them a victory.
383* ItsAllAboutMe: Usually selfish and opportunistic, just as much as his sister Hilary. Especially when money is involved.
384* IvyLeagueForEveryone: He eventually gains transfer admission to Princeton. However, it's actually not too unrealistic, considering Carlton is a legacy child (Phil attended Princeton), comes from a wealthy and connected family, and has worked himself to the bone for years to maintain near-perfect grades.
385* JerkassHasAPoint:
386** While comparing Will to his deadbeat father was a ''very'' low blow, Carlton was right that Will tended to coast on charm and bail out of anything requiring genuine hard work or sacrifice, even if it had ramifications for the people around him.
387** Carlton's snitching can be annoying. In the episode "Father of the Year, however, he wasn't wrong to want to report Will for pretending to be a father to his baby cousin Nicky since Will was basically lying to get women.
388* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He starts out as a snobbish and sycophantic {{Jerkass}} in the first season, but gradually becomes a close friend to Will and learns to genuinely care about him, even referring to him in one episode as "the brother I've always wanted".
389* KickTheDog: While he's right to have called Will out for being a slacker, did he really have to compare Will to his father after what he did to Will?
390* TheLancer: To Will.
391* LargeHam: In later seasons. In fact, both Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro comment on each other's tendency to overact in the episode "I, Whoops, There It Is."
392* ManChild: When he and Nicky go to see Dougie, they're equally excited. Not to mention ''dressing up as Macaulay Culkin for Halloween''.
393* MiddleChildSyndrome: He's the unpopular middle child between his super-cool BornLucky older sister Hilary and his universally adored younger sister Ashley. He's easily the least respected member of the family, especially by Will, but even his sisters make fun of him from time to time.
394* NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork: Averted in "The Ethnic Tip" where the extra homework Vivian gives him and Will was too much even for him. Played straight in later episodes, such as "Sleepless in Bel-Air", where he's excited to spend the night with his schoolwork (which was ''optional''), or "Not, I Barbecue" when he turns down a date from a girl on Saturday night because he prefers to study.
395* NoSocialSkills: Downplayed; Carlton isn't ''completely'' devoid of social skills, but he oftentimes seems incapable of interacting with people outside of a country club or private school. He gets better over time, but he's always pretty awkward.
396* ObliviousToLove: At times. For example, in the episode where he loses his virginity, he is describing his ideal woman to Will. A woman who fits all of the characteristics walks into the store and says she needs to find something, and he says, "Listen, lady, we're talking."
397* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Will is shot and nearly killed by a mugger, Carlton drops all his usual comical self and is withdrawn and angry most of the time. What really shows how much Carlton is shaken by the incident is that he, the WellDoneSonGuy of his father, coldly tells Phil that he doesn't believe in his father's take on justice, which equally shocks Phil. And by the end, Will is horrified that Carlton ''bought a gun''.
398* OvershadowedByAwesome:
399** How often he feels about Will.
400** In the last season, he finally gets accepted to Princeton. However, he starts getting cold feet when he sees how much Phil accomplished during his time there.
401* PointyHairedBoss: During his time as manager of the Peacock Stop, he'll gladly screw over the clientele in order to attempt to raise profits or cut costs. And he treats Will like utter crap when he first gets the job.
402* ProfessionalButtKisser: And proud of it. He acts like this even to his father at times. Though he's nothing compared to Phil's protege in "Cased Up" who kisses up twice as much and twice as well as Carlton does.
403* {{Protectorate}}: Will is ''very'' protective of Carlton, who is less streetwise and more naive than Will.
404* RevengeBeforeReason: It's heavily implied in "Bullets over Bel-Air" that the reason Carlton bought the gun wasn't actually for protection, but for revenge, due to his faith in the system being shattered, he wanted to take matters into his own hands, find the mugger and kill him. It's also implied that Will had deduced that was precisely what Carlton was planning to do, which is why he demanded that Carlton hand over the gun in the first place.
405* RunningGag: His (in)ability to dance. Except to "Billie Jean". His "Billie Jean" dance could be an ActorAllusion as Alfonso Ribeiro once danced alongside Music/MichaelJackson in the latter's famous Pepsi commercials. His dancing abilities become something of an ActorAllusion also during the family's appearance on ''Series/SoulTrain''.
406* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: When Carlton's ex-girlfriend comes back with a baby she claims is his, Will explains to Phil and Vivian that the baby belongs to "a young man who has seen ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' eight times."
407* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: He manages to outscream both of his sisters, older and younger.
408* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Will's Manly Man.
409* SmallNameBigEgo: He thinks very highly of himself because he’s rich and well-educated, and especially overestimates his ability to understand social situations leading to many BreakTheHaughty moments.
410* SmugSnake: Mostly in the beginning.
411* StrawLoser: He wasn’t supposed to be a loser early in the series but he’s gradually flanderized into an immature dork who just can’t compete with Will. In season one he was actually implied to be quite popular in his school but in one of the later episodes Carlton himself says he was always a loner and a “dweeb” in high school. Of course, we didn't actually see much of Carlton's (or Will's) life at school in the early seasons, so we only have Carlton's word to go on regarding how popular he was at that time. Once we *do* start seeing more of school-life, it's apparent that he really isn't very popular; this would lead one to deduce that Carlton's claims to popularity were more a case of UnreliableNarrator.
412* TeachersPet: He combines this with ProfessionalButtKisser. A college professor describes him as "One of the most conscientious freshmen business students. Very meticulous. Bakes me fresh muffins every day."
413* ThrowTheDogABone: Sometimes. In ''Grumpy Young Men'' he steals Will's girlfriend without even trying and later knocks out Will in a physical fight. At the end of ''Sooooooooul Train'' he upstages Will in a dance contest. There are also other rare episodes where he doesn't end up as the loser.
414* TookALevelInBadass: When he started out, most of the time he relied on either Will or Phil to back him up. However, during an episode where someone accuses him of "Not being black enough" he drops the goofy, nerd persona and proceeds to verbally tear the {{Jerkass}} a new one.
415* TookALevelInDumbass: He was originally TheComicallySerious. Between season 3 and 4 he starts acting goofy and immature more often to the point of becoming a full-blown ManChild in the last few seasons.
416* TookALevelInKindness: Was a snobby dick in the first season, but became far nicer in subsequent seasons.
417* UpperClassTwit: Especially in the first couple seasons.
418-->'''Carlton:''' I don't wanna die! I still need go to college and poke fun at all the kids on financial aid!
419* VitriolicBestBuds: With Will.
420* WellDoneSonGuy: He always wants to please his father and usually sides with him in arguments.
421* TheWhitestBlackGuy:
422** He's a stereotypical preppy, aspires to attend an Ivy League university, enjoys dancing to the music of Music/TomJones, and idolizes Creator/MacaulayCulkin and Creator/WilliamShatner. Will used to give him endless grief about it.
423--->'''Carlton:''' Wait 'till we come downstairs in these tuxes. People may not think we're twins, but I'll bet they'll think we're brothers.\
424'''Will:''' You know, I don't think you'll have to worry about anybody mistaking you for a brother.
425** Used a bit more seriously in the episode "Blood is Thicker Than Mud", where Will and Carlton try to join an all-black fraternity. Although they're both hazed, Carlton's hazing is more severe than Will's. Even after he endures everything they put him through, the pledge master, Top Dog, still refuses to let Carlton join because he believes that Carlton is a "sellout". Will quits in disgust when he finds out, and one of the other frat members tells Top Dog the others are sick of his crap and they're going to have him thrown out. After they return home and tell Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian what happened, Phil laments: "You know, this really upsets me. I've worked really hard to give my family a good life and suddenly somebody tells me there's a penalty for success? I'm sorry you had to go through that, Carlton. When are we going to stop doing this to each other?"
426* YouBastard: Shouts this at Juggles the clown after he has Carlton throw Safety Guy out the car window, causing him to get run over by a semi.
427[[/folder]]
428
429[[folder:Hilary Banks]]
430!!Hilary Banks (Creator/KarynParsons)
431[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fresh_prince_hilary_banks.jpg]]
432[[caption-width-right:300:''"Daddy, I need $300."'']]
433
434->''"I'm a career woman. I don't have time to dust and push around that... oh, what do you call that big, loud thing that sucks up everything?"''
435
436The spoiled elder child of the Banks family, Hilary's a socialite bent on being looked highly upon by her peers in the upper class. She also leeches off her parents' fortune and is ignorant of how life outside of hers really works.
437----
438* AttractivenessIsolation: Invoked in "Soul Train" when she complains about being the only one without a date ("I'm a beautiful celebrity and men are intimidated by me").
439* TheBeautifulElite: The straightest example of this trope in the Banks family. She's a beautiful, sophisticated young woman from a wealthy family who spends thousands of dollars in a single shopping trip on clothes and her social life consists of glamorous, high society activities.
440* BornLucky: The only explanation one can come up with for her being able to land progressively more lucrative and glamorous jobs despite being a college dropout with zero practical skills. By the end of the series she has her own successful TV show. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in Season 4.
441-->'''Carlton:''' Hilary's success is contrary to the laws of nature, totally inexplicable.
442* BrainlessBeauty: She’s a pretty, rich, spoiled girl who also happens to be an utter airhead and basically incapable of doing ''anything'' except shopping and spending her father's money. She casually asks her father for 300 dollars in the pilot episode, gets loads of various jobs with unexplained luck, and eventually gains her own television show as a talk show host.
443* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Although she's in her twenties.
444* BreakTheCutie: Goes through a period of this after [[spoiler: Trevor's death.]]
445* CharacterDevelopment:
446** Originally shallow and lacking self-confidence for being a jobless college dropout, she is shown to be more and more jovial for each successful job she takes on from Season 2 onwards; she ends up starring in her own hot talk show and moves to UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}}.
447** She also becomes gradually more independent over the course of the series. She starts off living in the Banks' residence, to living in the pool house without rent, to the pool house with $500 rent, to back into the Banks house for about a year to recover from Trevor's death, to moving into her own house, and finally making it on her own (with Ashley living with her) in New York.
448* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first season, she was portrayed as a shallow, spoiled, socialite and environmental activist. Since Season 2, she became just shallow and spoiled, though she's still shown knowing many high profile figures just with less frequency.
449* ChildishOlderSibling: She's a shallow brat who doesn't take anything seriously, while all her younger siblings are hard-working and BookSmart. Probably the main reason why she's TheUnfavorite, despite her inexplicably successful career.
450* CityMouse: If an activity does not involve shopping, hanging out with celebrities, swimming, going to parties, or any of the activities typically associated with Southern California high society, Hilary is likely going to be allergic to it.
451* CoolBigSis: Usually averted because Carlton and Ashley don’t see her as one. But there are a few moments where she’s shown to be a loving and supportive older sister, most notably when she gives Ashley advice about sleeping with her boyfriend, a rare serious and heartwarming moment from Hilary.
452* DaddysGirl: She's very spoiled and calls her father "Daddy" when she wants money, even in her EstablishingCharacterMoment.
453* DarkHorseSibling: Hilary is introduced as a spoiled college dropout who is not book smart like her siblings, and her parents are afraid she will never move out of the house or find a job. However, from season 2 onwards she finds a lot of jobs and eventually becomes the host of her own talk show, having more overt success than her brother (who is rejected by his dream college) or her sister (whose attempts to become a singer or a model failed).
454* DelayedReaction: When she witnesses Trevor's death on live television while he's proposing to her doing a bungee jump, it takes her ''way'' too long to understand what she just saw, even after Will points out the obvious. It isn't until after Trevor's funeral in the following scene that we see her finally tearing up at the incident.
455* DisappointingOlderSibling: Due to her selfishness and incompetence, she's this to Carlton and Ashley. Though she has her bonding moments with the latter, it's clear that they rarely see her as a CoolBigSis.
456-->'''Hilary:''' I can't wait till the new baby is born. Then I can do all those special things that big sisters do.\
457'''Carlton:''' Like when you took up to the attic window and told me I could fly?\
458'''Ashley:''' Or when you told me it was okay to roller-skate down the steps?
459* TheDitz: Very obviously. In the episode where Vivian is finally having the baby in the hospital:
460-->'''Philip:''' (to newborn Nicky) Hello, little Nicholas Andrew Banks.\
461'''Vivian:''' I thought we agreed to call him Philip.\
462'''Hilary:''' Ew, that's a stupid name.
463* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Her first scene has her telling her dad she needs $300 for a hat, all the while ignoring the newly-arrived Will.
464* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Hilary had reddish brown curly hair in the first season, then her hair went dark in later seasons before sporting straight hair in the final season. After the show's end, Karyn Parsons has reverted back to her natural hairstyle.
465* TheFashionista: She's always stylish, her trendy outfits and UnlimitedWardrobe are iconic.
466* {{Flanderization}}: When the series began, her ditziness was based more on being clueless about the real world. As the series progressed, she became dumber.
467* FriendToAllChildren: As long as they aren't related to her. Hilary loves babies and toddlers, and hit it off with a troop of Girl Scout [[{{Expy}} expies]] (though she needed some advice from Geoffrey, first).
468* FullNameUltimatum: "Hilary Violet Banks!"
469* HerHeartWillGoOn: She's shattered after Trevor's death, but eventually resolves to move on and keep living her life.
470* InnocentlyInsensitive: She's never malicious, just completely tactless.
471-->'''Hilary:''' (to Geoffrey's son) I think it's so great you're not embarrassed that your father has to do this stuff in people's lives that's too disgusting for them to do themselves. No offense, Geoffrey.\
472'''Geoffrey:''' None taken, Miss Hilary. I always consider the source.
473* ItsAllAboutMe: Sports a ''massive'' ego. When told to make a Mother's Day gift, she compiles a video montage featuring Vivian's "greatest achievement: Hilary Banks".
474* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While it doesn't show it very much, she does genuinely care for her family. Especially when Will gets shot. Also when Ashley is contemplating sleeping with her boyfriend, without outright telling what she should or shouldn't do, she's very supportive.
475* LethalChef
476-->'''Hilary:''' I know what I'm doing. Remember, I was a professional caterer.\
477'''Carlton:''' And you still would be if you hadn't poisoned those nuns.
478* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: The dark to Ashley's light.
479* LoopholeAbuse: How she ended up in the pool house during season three. In her own words, Philip told her she had to be out of the house, not off of the property.
480* LovableAlphaBitch: She's mostly cheerfully oblivious to how badly she treats those beneath her (mainly Geoffrey).
481* MsFanservice: Aside from her good looks, she wears a lot of form-fitting outfits that really showcase her figure.
482-->'''Hilary:''' I mean, people stare at me all the time, but I'm pretty.\
483'''Will:''' I guess that spandex don't got nothing to do with it, huh?
484* NoodleIncident: In regards to entertaining men in the jacuzzi.
485--> "That's between me, that man and his video camera!"
486* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
487** In one episode, Ashley's boyfriend is pressuring her to have sex, and she's confused and scared about what to do, especially since she's a virgin. With Vivian out of town, it falls to Hilary to give a version of TheTalk--and she's surprisingly mature and serious about it, giving genuinely wise advice and promising to support Ashley in whatever choice she makes.
488** In "Just Say Yo," Uncle Phil makes Will tell the whole family that he was the source of the amphetamines Carlton inadvertently took, which nearly killed him. Hilary spends the entire scene giving Will a DeathGlare for the ages, never even ''blinking'' as her cousin breaks down and confesses. As the scene ends, she silently places her hand on Carlton's back to comfort him. Her lack of dialogue and obvious anger are deeply unnerving considering her usual attitude.
489* OpenMouthInsertFoot: All the time given what a ditz she is. Several times during "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse" it doubles as BrutalHonesty as she's not wrong.
490-->'''Hilary:''' Will's dad is a deadbeat who left him and his mother flat
491* ProudBeauty: "I'm a beautiful woman trapped in an even more beautiful woman's body."
492* ReallyGetsAround: During the first two seasons, at least. Though only one of her dates is actually shown, it's referred to plenty of times.
493* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Due to her rich lifestyle, she’s very spoiled and largely clueless.
494-->'''Philip:''' You didn't have the common sense to know that?\
495'''Hilary:''' I don't have any common sense!
496* SpoiledBrat: Her first line ever was "Dad, I need $300!" Strangely, one flashback shows that she was like this even as a child, when the Banks were still lower-middle class and Phil didn't earn much yet, implying that she was born spoiled rather than becoming this way due to the family's later wealth.
497* TookALevelInDumbass: She was always the least intelligent family member but initially she was more snobby and shallow than a BrainlessBeauty.
498* TookALevelInKindness: Her character gradually became much more down-to-Earth and empathetic over time as a hint to her increasing maturity and vulnerability (especially in the aftermath of Trevor's death).
499* TheUnfavorite: Fortunately, she's too dim to notice.
500-->'''Philip:''' Right now, it's hard to love any one of you, but I do. Ashley, I love your sensitivity, your warmth. Carlton, I love your ambition and your persistence. Hilary...Hilary.\
501'''Hilary:''' Yes, Daddy?\
502'''Philip:''' ...nice earrings.\
503'''Hilary:''' Oh, Daddy!
504* UpperClassTwit: Worst one in the family. Particularly early on when she frequently championed environmental conservation while invariably demonstrating in the process that she is neither knowledgeable in nor especially devoted to the subject (fittingly, this character trait is dropped altogether by the end of the first season).
505* ValleyGirl: Even though she has all the mannerisms down, she's actually from Bel Air and in one episode describes hell as being "like, the Valley".
506* WomanChild: Hilary is hopelessly immature and can't be self-sufficient, so her parents tolerate her freeloading.
507[[/folder]]
508
509[[folder:Ashley Banks]]
510!!Ashley Banks (Creator/TatyanaAli)
511[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ashley1.jpg]]
512[[caption-width-right:300:''"Okay, I'm cute. Can we move on now?"'']]
513
514->''"I'm not as innocent as I look. [{{beat}}] Alright, I am."''
515
516The youngest Banks daughter, she instantly took a liking to Will once he arrived and very much looked up to him. Gradually, she became bent on being less of daddy's girl and more open and a bit rebellious, even out of Will's control. She is the only one of the Banks children to have something like a normal adolescence with common teenager issues.
517----
518* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: When she became a music sensation, she let the fame go to her head. She returned to normal once it became clear she would be a One-Hit Wonder, though.
519* BigBrotherWorship: Towards Will, especially in the earlier seasons. She greatly admired him and would often follow him around and mimic his behavior (much to the dismay of Uncle Phil). She slowly grew out of this as she got older, but she remains extremely close to Will.
520* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Sometimes, starting in season four. She becomes a rebellious boy-crazy teenager who often sneaks out of the house and thinks that her parents treat her like a kid. One episode even reveals that she secretly dropped out of her private school and enrolled in secret at a public high school.
521* CloserToEarth: Than Carlton and Hilary.
522* TheCutie: In early seasons, where her innocence, sweetness, and fondness for Will are emphasized.
523* DaddysGirl: She fights this trope for much of the show before eventually accepting and appreciating her father's concern.
524* EvilMakeover: [[spoiler: Has one in "The Client" due to letting the fame get into her head.]]
525* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Especially in contrast to the 100% girly Hilary. At first she is a sweet child who dresses in a feminine manner but shows a tomboyish streak because of Will's influence, as she often tries to imitate him (like the rapping and drumming in the first episodes). This streak even increases when she gets older, as she starts wearing more casual and tomboyish clothes, though she is also fond of skirts, dating boys, singing, and modeling.
526* InfantSiblingJealousy: Her subplot in the episode where the family thinks about how the new baby will impact their lives. She has a fantasy about the entire family ignoring her and even forgetting her name, as she will no longer be TheBabyOfTheBunch.
527* ItsAllAboutMe: Apparently it runs in the family. Ashley became much more selfish and self-centered as a teenager. Arguably the biggest example is when her reaction to Will telling her that Carlton is gone is of indifference and even happiness, instead being more concerned about her party and her appearence instead of her missing brother.
528--> '''Will:''' Ashley, Carlton ran way.\
529'''Ashley:''' Great!\
530'''Will:''' Hey, hey, hey! Come on, I'm being serious. Now I've been calling around. I don't know where he is. We gotta get in the car. We gotta go find him.\
531'''Ashley:''' No, Will. I'm having a party. I'm carefree, understand? Free of cares? Quick! How's my hair and lips? Do I look okay?
532* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite becoming much [[TookALevelInJerkass brattier and more prone to getting in trouble]] during her teen years she does raise valid points in ''Father Knows Best'' when she secretly transfers to a public school. She reasonably points out that the Banks live a sheltered, privileged lifestyle and that it would benefit her to interact more with people from diverse, different walks of life. Phil even signs off on it once he is convinced that Ashley will still receive a good education.
533* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: The light to Hilary's dark.
534* LikeBrotherAndSister: With Will, since the first episode, where she tells him "You're like the big brother l never had".
535* MoralityPet:
536** To Will, who has a soft spot for Ashley and almost never makes fun of her.
537** To Geoffrey, who is also nicer to her than to the rest of the family and even says she's the only Banks family member he tolerates.
538* NiceGirl: Especially when she was a little girl. Downplayed to JerkWithAHeartOfGold as a teenager.
539* NiceToTheWaiter: She's the nicest member of the family to Geoffrey. For his part, he also reciprocates this kindness, acting like a ParentalSubstitute for her when Phil and Viv aren't around.
540* OnlySaneWoman: Much more sane and level-headed than most of the family (especially compared to her siblings). Ironically because she’s the youngest.
541* PassionateSportsGirl: She loves baseball and plays on her school's girls' baseball team. This causes [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom problems when she borrows Will's ball for practice, not realizing that it was autographed by Willie Mays.]]
542* {{Protectorate}}: Will, Carlton, and Phil are all very protective of her, verging on controlling. Ashley calls this out, commenting that Will and Carlton were getting up to far more mischief at her age than they let her get away with.
543* RebelliousPrincess: She becomes this also because of Will's influence.
544* SheCleansUpNicely: The older she gets, the prettier she gets and the more overprotective Uncle Phil gets. As well as Will and Carlton. Ask [[Series/FamilyMatters Jaleel White]].
545* ShesAllGrownUp: Naturally through the seasons, though Uncle Phil is reluctant to accept this.
546* SpoiledSweet: In contrast to snobby Hilary and Carlton, Ashley wasn't born until after the Banks family moved to Bel-Air. Nevertheless, introduced as a down-to-earth and sweet girl who immediately forms a close bond with her cousin Will. She also has a very close friendship with the family's butler Geoffrey. In a later episode, he says she's the only Banks family member he tolerates.
547* StraightMan: Being the most normal character, Ashley rarely gets funny lines or moments, and is mostly a foil to the antics of her quirky family members.
548* StrawFeminist: In the Season 6 Thanksgiving episode, Ashley suddenly becomes a feminist despite never showing any signs of this before. The other (female) characters are exasperated at her and keep telling her to shut up. This is ridiculed to the point that when the others are saying Amen at the dinner table, she says "A-woman".
549* TokenGoodTeammate: Before Nicky's birth, she was the token good of the Banks siblings. This is inverted in later seasons as Hilary and Carlton's CharacterDevelopment had them TookALevelInKindness and becoming much closer to Will while Ashley going through puberty had her TookALevelInJerkass and started getting in much more arguments with Will and the family.
550* TomboynessUpgrade: She starts off very girly and wearing very feminine dresses. As her character slowly becomes more rebellious as she gets older, she starts wearing more casual, tomboyish clothes.
551* TookALevelInJerkass: Once she became a teenager, Ashley is more brash, scheming, and rude. Downplayed as she's still a sweetheart deep down.
552[[/folder]]
553
554[[folder:Geoffrey Butler]]
555!!Geoffrey Barbara Butler (Creator/JosephMarcell)
556[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fresh_prince_geoffrey.jpg]]
557[[caption-width-right:300:''"Sarcasm? Whatever do you mean?"'']]
558
559->''"I would prefer an assassin's bullet to this kind of living hell."''
560
561The Banks family butler, an older English man who outside of the witty barbs has a great relationship with the family.
562----
563* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: Will mistakes him for Uncle Phil when they meet in the first episode.
564* AffectionateNickname: Will almost always call him "G" as a sign of endearment.
565* BattleButler: He once was a sparring partner for Creator/ChuckNorris and even took on a guy bigger than him in a bar fight. He also has Phil's Pool Cue at the ready when Phil shows his skills.
566* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: He's generally far more respectful and less snarky toward Ashley and Vivian than to the rest of the Banks family, as Ashley and him have a close bond and she's very nice and respectful to him, while Vivian is far more respectful and less bossy to him than Phil.
567* BrutalHonesty: He has no problem telling the Banks what he thinks about them, and always in a subtle snarky way.
568* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Originally very respectful and gentlemanly (in Season 1), but he becomes more and more a cynical DeadpanSnarker who openly complains about his job and the Banks family, to the point that literally everything to come out of his mouth is a sarcastic remark or an outright insult (towards everyone except Vivian, Ashley, and Nicky).
569* ChronicVillainy: Geoffrey switches back and forward between plotting against and hating the family and feeling genuine affection for them throughout the series.
570* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: When drunk.
571* ComedicSociopathy: He has his moments.
572* CovertPervert: Despite being a stereotypical stuffy English butler, he has his moments. For instance, he describes a dream about being tied up by amazon women and tormented with fruit, and in another episode, Uncle Phil wakes up the family when he thinks Vivian is in labour, and when Will complains about being woken up by a naked man running around the house, Geoffrey says, "I'm sorry, I thought you'd all gone to sleep".
573* DeadpanSnarker: Much emphasis on the deadpan part.
574* TheDogBitesBack: He quits in one episode because he's sick of the low salary Phil pays him and only agrees to come back after Phil offers him a raise.
575* EmbarrassingMiddleName: ''Barbara''. "It's a ''family'' name!"
576* EuropeansAreKinky: Implied with him; "The Baby Comes Out" reveals that he apparently runs around the house in the nude at night when everyone's asleep, "Clubba Hubba" has a WakingNonSequitur for him as "Get your own Geisha!" and when he's arrested by a female [=FBI=] Agent in "Hex and The Single Guy" for being in the country illegally, he initially thought that when she slapped the cuffs on him she was the woman of his dreams.
577* ExpansionPackPast: He claims to have been butler to both Creator/ChuckNorris and Music/LedZeppelin before his tenure with the Bankses. It also turned out he was a hilariously failed Olympic runner, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txv0hUPW1_k the "Shame of a Nation", as the documentary on him was titled]]. [[http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=6417 The taxi story actually happened, to Rosie Ruiz at the 1980 Boston Marathon]], and led to much more race security since.
578* FriendToAllChildren: He's far nicer to Ashley and Nicky than anyone else in the house, save for Viv.
579* GentlemanSnarker: Even when making fun of Will and the Banks, he always refers to Will as "Master William” and the Banks children as "Master Carlton", "Miss Hilary", "Miss Ashley", and "Master Nicky", and always speaking in a deadpan, sarcastic tone.
580* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Butler is both his job and his family name.
581* HyperCompetentSidekick: Geoffrey generally runs every aspect of the house, such as buying groceries, cooking, and cleaning. While he's been known to slack off at times, "Did the Earth Move for You?" and "Winner Takes Off" show how the family really can't hack his different responsibilities even if they divide the workload.
582* TheJeeves: A British butler who is also well-dressed, dutiful, and polite…at least in the first season, before becoming a DeadpanSnarker.
583* JerkassHasAPoint: Considering how everyone treats him, his cynical and insulting attitude towards the family is somewhat justified.
584* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sometimes you have to wonder why Uncle Phil doesn't fire him. However Geoffrey has his kindly moments and still has a (somewhat) good relationship with the family, as seen in the episode where they ask him to become Nicky’s godfather. He does show that, despite how he acts, he does value his place in the Banks family.
585* LongLostUncleAesop: One episode had a previously unknown son showing up. He runs off after stealing money from Will. He comes back and Geoffrey forgives him because that's what family does.
586* LukeYouAreMyFather: In Season 6, he discovers he has a son he never knew about, named Frederick.
587* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: He's the only full time servant working in the Banks' estate and does many household chores that should be out of the purview of his duties as a butler. This is [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] when a friend of his who also works as a butler visits and notes that it's odd for a butler to be responsible for cooking and cleaning.
588* MeaningfulName: Of the patronym variety, for his last name.
589* OnlySaneMan: How he sees himself, but this is hardly true in later seasons.
590* SarcasticDevotee: How much he’s actually loyal and devoted to the Banks family varies DependingOnTheWriter. In one episode, he believes he has won a multimillion dollar lottery (it was actually a prank of Will and Carlton) and immediately quits his job after insulting the whole family, although he comes back eventually. It also gets played with a bit in that, when he thought he was rich, he was quite willing to share the wealth with those that treated him kindly (such as promising to buy Ashley a car). One ClipShow dedicates a series of clips to his wisecracks, much to his shock.
591-->"Sarcasm? Whatever do you mean?"
592* ServileSnarker: Used to be the TropeNamer.
593-->'''Uncle Phil:''' Geoffrey, go fetch my tools.\
594'''Geoffrey:''' You mean your knife and fork?
595* TooKinkyToTorture: "Sleepless In Bel-Air" had him talking about a wonderful dream where Amazonian women had him tied up and were taunting him with tangelos.
596* TheWhitestBlackGuy: He's a black British man and has more in common with the ServileSnarker butler archetype than the typical American black man. This fact doesn't go unnoticed.
597[[/folder]]
598
599[[folder:Nicky Banks]]
600!!Nicholas Andrew [[Music/BoyzIIMen Michael Shawn Nathan Wanya]] "Nicky" Banks (Creator/RossBagley)
601[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nicky_9.jpg]]
602
603The youngest of the Banks children, born during the run of the show. But don't let that make you think he didn't have any CharacterDevelopment, he [[{{pun}} grew]] as much as the others did.
604----
605* AdvertisedExtra: Credited as a regular in the last two seasons but is mostly kept OutOfFocus and is entirely absent from 19 episodes.
606* ChildrenAreInnocent: And Santa tells Will to keep Nicky that way for as long as possible.
607* CousinOliver: A unique case of being born on screen and then aged up to fill this role.
608* DeadpanSnarker:
609-->'''Nicky:''' ''[after coming upon Hilary and Ashley in the family room, pretending to be driving]'' What are you doing?\
610'''Hilary:''' Driving lessons!\
611'''Nicky:''' Lesson number one: use a car.
612* DeadPetSketch: Phil sits on and kills Nicky's rabbit, Harry.
613* OverlyLongName: He starts out as Nicholas Andrew Banks, and the first names of the members of Boyz II Men were added on the day of his christening.
614* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Child Nicky first appeared in a Season 4 episode set a few years into the future, in which he is told a story centering around his christening as a baby a few years before. The next season has him as a preschool-aged child living in the present day, with Jazz lampshading that he's going back to the streets where things make sense.
615* WiseBeyondTheirYears:
616--> '''Philip:''' Nicky, do you remember in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', when Mufasa-- \
617'''Nicky:''' Daddy, did you sit on Harry?
618[[/folder]]
619
620!Secondary Characters
621
622!!Family Members
623[[folder:Viola "Vi" Smith]]
624
625[[quoteright:188:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b4f0ba6c_a264_4190_955b_3c2cbd62925e.jpeg]]
626
627(Creator/VerneeWatson-Johnson)
628
629Will's sharp-tongued mother, and the oldest of the Smith sisters. Had a hand in raising her younger siblings; as a result, she often feels as though they don't respect her if they decide to go against her wishes. Despite this, she has nothing but love for her family, especially her son.
630----
631* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: She sported long hair in the first four seasons before sporting short hair in the last two seasons.
632* {{Hypocrite}}: Related to the "Me" post. In her first episode, when she visits Will for Thanksgiving, she blasts Vivian for the privileged upbringing that she's giving her children when (a) It's none of her business how Vivian and Phil choose to raise their children and (b) The very reason she sent Will out there was so he could benefit from this.
633* InTheBlood: When Vi cracks a joke about Uncle Phil's weight in "'Twas The Night Before Christening" and Phil lampshades this by saying "Okay now I see where Will gets it from".
634* ItsAllAboutMe: Mild example and she quickly grows out of it, but early in the show, she cannot handle family members going against her wishes ''at all'', to the point that when Janice gets engaged to Frank (who's white), she's initially very disapproving of it, and when Janice understandably refuses to break up with him just because her sister told her to, she refuses to attend the wedding and tries to forbid Will from going as well. She even says that her family not immediately obeying her [[InsaneTrollLogic means they no longer respect her and thus also no longer love her]]. Will calls her out on how ridiculous she's acting.
635* MalignedMixedMarriage: Vi initially treats Janice's marriage to a white man as this. She changes her mind after Will calls her out on her bullshit.
636* MamaBear: She acts as this to her son, her nieces and nephew, and her younger sisters, particularly Janice.
637* NiceGirl: She is really sweet and kind and is caring to people close to her, especially her son Will whom she loves the most and is supportive of what he decides.
638* NoSympathy: She didn’t approve of Will having a career of selling cars because he dropped out of school. Dropping out of school is a bad decision but still.
639* ParentsAsPeople: She's a loving mother to Will, but being a single parent and sole breadwinner meant that she couldn't be involved in Will's life as much as Phil and Vivian can. She can also be smothering of Will at times without considering his feelings, such as when she expects him to move back to Philadelphia without realizing that he wants to stay in Bel-Air. Thankfully she gets over it after a heart to heart.
640* RomanticFalseLead: She had one during the second half of Season 2. She ultimately broke up with him because he wanted more out of the relationship than she did.
641* SassyBlackWoman: It's in the Smith family blood.
642* SlapSlapKiss: [[spoiler:Goes from volleying insults with Fred in one scene to sleeping with him in the next.]]
643* SmallRoleBigImpact: She's the reason the entire show happens. To wit: "I got in one little fight and my mom got scared, saying 'you're living with your auntie and your uncle in Bel Air!"
644* VagueAge: It's difficult to say how old she actually is. She's confirmed to be the oldest of the Smith sisters and was like a second mother to her sisters - specially Vivian - growing up, even teaching them how to cook and clean, but exactly how much older she is than Vivian (who's the second eldest and was in her mid-forties by the end of the series run) is very unclear. It's especially difficult to pin down as not only is her age never inferred, but her actress Vernee Watson-Johnson was quite youthful during her role on the show (and she would actually be even younger than Vivian going by her own birthdate of 1954).
645* WhyWasteAWedding: [[spoiler:Will and Lisa sure took their single parents marrying each other quite well.]]
646
647[[/folder]]
648
649[[folder:Lou Smith]]
650
651[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4de30a11_4121_425b_83ee_c2ab82d1ad90.jpeg]]
652 [[caption-width-right:201:''"You think I wanted this? It! Just! Happened!"'']]
653
654->''"I gotta stay flexible, you know what I'm sayin'?"''
655
656(Creator/BenVereen)
657
658Will's deadbeat father, who ran out on him and Vi when he was only four years old. He comes back into Will's life nearly 15 years later, with Will finally getting to experience some of the father-son times he'd previously never had... only to leave him again after promising to take on a cross-country trip.
659----
660* BitchInSheepsClothing: He can be charming and claims to want to genuinely reconnect with his son, but quickly shows his selfish true colors.
661* BlatantLies: All he ever does is tell lies or make excuses for why he abandoned Will, and he hasn't changed at all.
662* BrokenPedestal: After abandoning him a second time, Lou all but confirms to Will that yes, Phil and Vivian were right and he is nothing but a cowardly, selfish, lying jerkass. Will never has a nice thing to say about him again, and it's hard to blame him.
663* DaddyDidntShow: Well, he ''did'', but only to let Phil & Vivian know that he wasn't taking Will with him after all.
664* DirtyCoward: While he never really explains why he abandoned Will and his mother, it's heavily implied he never expected to be a father and when Will turned 4 years old, he realized that he didn't want to be one, so he left without saying goodbye to avoid feeling guilty about it. When he returns to Will's life 14 years later, he is seen to try to reconnect with his son but the same fears of fatherhood return, leading him to make the same choice again. However, this time he's confronted by Phil, and Will realizes that his father was the coward they always said he was. The fact that he never once contacted his estranged wife Viola to ask her permission to see Will after all this time or even apologize for abandoning her is also a heavy indicator he's a spineless asshole.
665* DisappearedDad: Abandoned his family when Will was only four years old.
666* EvilCounterpart: To Uncle Phil. A horrible father figure who is absent in Will's life instead of a good father figure who actually supports and cares for Will.
667* EvilCannotComprehendGood: When he tries to explain why he walked out, Phil shoots him down, telling him he's been there. The difference being Phil was there for his family because it's what a man does. Lou concedes that Phil is a better man than him and asks if he's happy. Phil is incredulous that he thinks this was about being better than him.
668* HateSink: If his first abandonment of Will didn't seal the deal, the second time he does this firmly cements him as this.
669* IgnoredEpiphany: He briefly seems to realize the consequences of his actions when Will uses [[YoureNotMyFather his first name]] only to immediately walk out on him.
670* {{Jerkass}}: He's a deadbeat father played straight who continuously makes excuses whenever Will tries to spend time with him.
671* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He abandoned his family when Will was only four years old. He then returns to Will fourteen years later to fix their strained relationship. Will openly accepts him and believes that his father has changed. Then, Lou quickly tries to abandons his son again when some "important business" comes up and [[BlatantLies he can't make time for his son.]] This leads to the most heart-wrenching scene in the series.
672* KnightOfCerebus: Unlike other characters on the show, his actions aren't PlayedForLaughs and the episode he appears in is one of, if not the darkest moment in the series. The lone episode he appears in begins lighthearted, but ends with Lou walking out on a heartbroken Will again and Will promising to make it without his father while breaking down crying. A sad and sympathetic Uncle Phil gives Will a CoolDownHug. The studio audience is completely silent during this final scene, with the only outside sound audible being a sobbing Karyn Parsons (Hilary) from off-stage.
673* OneShotCharacter: While he's mentioned in quite a few episodes, he only appears in "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse".
674* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Lou shares his surname with his ex-wife. According to "Ain't No Business Like Show Business", Will has an uncle who is also named Lou.
675* ParentalAbandonment: He left without a word of goodbye to Will when he was four years old. He shows up later during Will's college years and even offers to let him travel with him... only to leave him once again to Will's dismay.
676* ThatManIsDead: Will has nothing but contempt for him any time he is brought back up in later seasons. The rest of the family held this attitude before and after his second abandonment of Will. It's also ''not'' a wise idea to [[BerserkButton compare Will to him]], as Carlton learns when he makes this accusation during a rather bitter argument.
677* YoureNotMyFather: The last thing Will says to his father before he abandons him for the second and final time, referring to him as ''Lou'' instead of "Dad".
678[[/folder]]
679
680[[folder:Hattie "Granny" Banks]]
681
682[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8bccc69c_9342_400b_90f3_e85628cbca8e.jpeg]]
683 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
684
685(Creator/VirginiaCapers)
686
687Uncle Phil's dynamic mother, whom Will is particularly fond of. She often tells Will and the Bankses tales of Phil's upbringing on their farm in Yamacraw, North Carolina, often to Phil's embarrassment.
688----
689* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: To Philip. She ''loves'' to tell stories about his childhood, particularly involving pig-raising.
690* CoolOldLady: To the point where Will loves hanging out with her.
691* EmbarrassingNickname: She still calls Philip "Zeke", much to his chagrin.
692* GoodParents: She and her husband Joe were very loving towards Philip and she still dotes on him now.
693* SupremeChef: Everyone adores her cooking. It also explains why Uncle Phil is such a BigEater; having a mother who can cook as good as she can, you're always going to want more.
694* TookALevelInJerkass: Downplayed, but in Season 6 she showed signs of this such as not listening to Hilary's problems and getting mad at Will for saying her food was great in its own way rather than the best in every way.
695[[/folder]]
696
697[[folder:Joe "Grandpa" Banks]]
698
699[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/99e35911_0044_4368_8a8e_0eed2f1722df.jpeg]]
700 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
701
702(Creator/GilbertLewis)
703
704Uncle Phil's father.
705----
706* BusCrash: After his only appearance, it’s confirmed that he died.
707%%* CoolOldGuy
708* KilledOffScreen: He didn't return again after his only appearance in "Not With My Pig, You Don't" and was confirmed to have died in season two.
709[[/folder]]
710
711[[folder:Helen Smith]]
712
713[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ef6a9aca_8465_42e1_a62e_4a00f20e4d60.jpeg]]
714 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
715
716(Creator/JeniferLewis)
717
718The second-youngest Smith sister, and Will's aunt. A bit of a loudmouth with snark for everyone she meets.
719----
720* AbhorrentAdmirer: Shows signs of this towards Geoffrey in the Thanksgiving special in season 6 when she repeatedly tries to get Geoffrey to admit she's attractive, to which he responds with a boatload of snark
721-->'''Helen:''' That delivery boy was looking at me like a bucket of KFC, isn't that right Geoffrey?\
722'''Geoffrey:''' If you mean something fast and cheap, then yes.
723* DeadpanSnarker: The snarkiest of Vivian's sisters.
724* LovableSexManiac: In season six, as by that point she had been divorced for three years.
725* NoIndoorVoice: Being a brash SassyBlackWoman, she's generally very loud.
726* SassyBlackWoman: Even by the standards of her very sassy gaggle of sisters. It comes with being played by Jenifer Lewis.
727-->'''Aunt Janice:''' ''[about her white fiancé]'' I guess I was hoping... no-one would notice?\
728'''Aunt Helen:''' Honey, who'd you think you was bringin' him home to, Stevie Wonder?
729[[/folder]]
730
731[[folder:Janice Smith Schaeffer]]
732
733[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fdc6af8b_e860_4121_9ff7_c7fcaad46217.jpeg]]
734 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
735
736(Charlayne Woodard)
737
738The youngest Smith sister, and Will's aunt. She marries Frank Schaeffer, [[TokenWhite a white man]], in season two.
739----
740* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Is the cause of this among her family when she marries a white man.
741%%* GenkiGirl
742* PutOnABus: It's mentioned that she's on vacation in a season four episode, but then never appears again.
743[[/folder]]
744
745[[folder:Lester Lewis]]
746
747[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cb48669c_6e2d_44c6_b7d0_c58e0f2a0df9.jpeg]]
748 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
749
750(Creator/FeltonPerry)
751
752Will's uncle, and Aunt Helen's husband. Implied to have a bit of a "wandering eye". Helen ends up divorcing him.
753----
754* AlliterativeName: '''L'''ester '''L'''ewis
755* LovableSexManiac: Though considering Helen divorces him, the "lovable" part is up for debate.
756* MistakenForCheating: He was actually seeing a psychiatrist due to impotence from depression.
757* PutOnABus: Via divorce.
758* TemptingFate: No, he does ''not'' know how to ski.
759[[/folder]]
760
761[[folder:Bobby Lewis]]
762
763(Ahmad Stoner)
764
765Will's, Carlton’s, Hilary’s, and Ashley’s cousin, the son of his Aunt Helen and Uncle Lester. A bit of a handful.
766----
767* KidsAreCruel: To the point that Hilary puts him on a ''leash'' when she takes him out.
768* PutOnABus: Presumably Lester gets custody of him.
769[[/folder]]
770
771[[folder:Frank Schaeffer]]
772
773[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bb2653c0_3998_4feb_8143_4208bb6765c0.jpeg]]
774 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
775
776(Creator/DiedrichBader, Robert Torti)
777
778The TokenWhite husband of Will's Aunt Janice.
779----
780* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: He's a white guy marrying into a black family.
781* OpenMouthInsertFoot: He's not quite used to having a black extended family. Rightfully, nobody's willing to help him out when he gets himself into one of these jams.
782* PutOnABus: Went on vacation with Janice and never came back.
783* TokenWhite: In the black family of his wife.
784[[/folder]]
785
786!!Other Characters
787
788[[folder:Jazz]]
789!!Jazz (Creator/DJJazzyJeff) (Jeffrey A. Townes)
790[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jazz.gif]]
791
792Will's best friend in L.A. (played by Will Smith's actual rap partner) who met him while performing at a nightclub. Jazz functions as a DropInCharacter, often showing up unannounced (and unwanted) at the Banks house to eat the family's food, scheme with Will, unsuccessfully flirt with Hilary, and generally insult Uncle Phil. Phil's dislike of Jazz quickly evolved into a RunningGag featuring StockFootage of him being thrown from the house while grunting. Despite being dimwitted and occasionally manipulative, Jazz does care for Will (and the rest of the Banks family as well), and goes the extra mile for them on more than one occasion.
793----
794* AbhorrentAdmirer: Toward Hilary. Though she did genuinely acknowledge the times he stood up for her, she generally disliked him, and to be fair, aside from those few moments he didn't really do anything other than make it clear he wanted to sleep with her. However, it ''might'' have gone both ways at some point, as Jazz briefly got married and Hilary subconsciously vented her jealousy of his bride with comments like how she "wouldn't want to see a sweet guy like him get hurt" & threatening his fiancée to treat Jazz right.
795* BrutalHonesty: He just doesn't know when to shut up, especially around Uncle Phil.
796* ButtMonkey: Mostly due to the RunningGag of getting kicked out of the house every time he appears.
797* TheCasanova: Like Will, he flirts with a lot of women.
798* ChivalrousPervert: He has quite the reputation as a casanova but he treats these women well as shown by how Jewel said Jazz treats her. He's also very brazen in his attraction to Hilary, but when seeing how her abrasive boss treats her, he defends her in very eloquent terms.
799* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Most of the time.
800* CoolShades: He wears sunglasses all the time.
801* DropInCharacter: More like "Throw Out Character"...
802* DumbassHasAPoint: His bulb is barely flickering, but that results in burst of insight.
803** He calls out Hilary's boss for mistreating her and tells her that no amount of fame makes the way she treats Hilary acceptable.
804** He warns Will married life is a huge game changer, especially if you find out that you never knew the person you were dating.
805** While Uncle Phil let him back in after the fact, he was right that Phil overreacted by throwing him out just because he said the phone was broken.
806* EveryoneHasStandards: He's the dumbest character on the show, but even he couldn't believe Tyriq answered "O" when asked what the capital of Ohio is
807* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Of the family, only Will and Ashley actually enjoy having him around. Philip downright loathes him, Hilary doesn't care for his flirting, and Carlton thinks he's an idiot. Vivian is civil towards him, but otherwise shares her husband's views. Even Will occasionally gets fed up with his {{Jerkass}} tendencies and stupid behavior, which usually lands Will in ''real'' trouble.
808* GettingTheBoot: The famous RunningGag of Jazz getting thrown out of the Banks' house (usually by Phil, but everyone in the family except Carlton and Ashley did it at least once).
809* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Will.
810* HopelessSuitor: To Hilary. He has a massive crush on her but she always turns him down.
811* JerkassBall: Sometimes. Such as when he advertised a huge party at Will and Carton's apartment and charged money that he kept for himself, leaving Will and Carlton to get kicked out of their apartment the following day. Or when he set Will up with his sister knowing full well what a bossy control freak she was, just to get her off his back.
812* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his occasional Jerkass moments, he's a good friend to Will and holds genuine care for all of the members (including Phil). Even in the instance he got Will evicted, he felt remorse when he learned his scam had real repercussions. He also let's Will stay with him until he finds a new place or until his eviction, and the only thing that keeps him from reimbursing Will is that he got robbed.
813* LimitedWardrobe: Because of his being thrown out of the house is StockFootage, he always wears the same outfit when he's about to get thrown out.
814* LowerClassLout: In contrast to Hilary and Carlton being {{Upper Class Twit}}s, he's an uneducated delinquent from the WrongSideOfTheTracks.
815* OneSteveLimit: As Geoffrey the butler is a regular character, DJ Jazzy Jeff's character goes by Jazz at all times.
816* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Though it's implied that it might even be his ''given'' name. Also played straight with his actor, DJ Jazzy Jeff, for much of the run; later averted when the show began crediting him under his given name, Jeffrey Townes, after DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince split.
817* OnlyOneName: He's only known as Jazz and has no known last name.
818* OnlyFriend: Jazz doesn't seem to have any other friends besides Will.
819* OutOfFocus: His appearances are less frequent in later seasons due to the fact that DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince disbanded by the fourth season. Season 6 (the final one) is the only season where he never has ADayInTheLimelight, just a few cameo appearances. He only shows up for a brief moment during the first half of the two-part series finale, but is name-dropped by Phil at the end of part two.
820* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: In his first appearance, Will hires him as Ashley's drum teacher. There's no mention of him ever doing this job again. Justified as she quit drums at the end of the episode.
821* RecurringCharacter: Surprisingly he never has a PromotionToOpeningTitles.
822* RunningGag: His tendency to get thrown out of the Bankses' house. Inverted, subverted, and averted a couple of times, such as when he was thrown ''into'' the house, when Jazz [[spoiler:[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments threw Uncle Phil out the house]]]], and when Jazz did something so horrible that Will doesn't think he's worth kicking out of the house. Also invoked by Jazz himself to show that he can reach the car from the house without walking.
823* ShowStopper: Ironically starting around the time he became OutOfFocus.
824* TemptingFate: In one of his RunningGag moments, he proudly brags about how he's already outside the house so Uncle Phil can't throw him out. GilliganCut to Jazz getting thrown ''into'' the house instead.
825* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Never too far from a bucket of chicken wings.
826[[/folder]]
827
828[[folder:Toni]]
829
830[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aaee1497_55f8_46fb_b64e_5a01211c0745.jpeg]]
831 [[caption-width-right:201:]]
832
833(Creator/LisaFuller)
834
835Hilary's airheaded best friend during season one.
836----
837* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Only appears in season one.
838* DumbBlonde: Even dumber than Hilary.
839[[/folder]]
840
841[[folder:Kellogg “Cornflake” Lieberbaum]]
842
843[[quoteright:228:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0832fcca_4a01_466a_8305_3745b826e351.jpeg]]
844 [[caption-width-right:228:]]
845
846(Creator/MichaelWeiner)
847
848Will's rather dorky TokenWhite best friend at Bel-Air Academy during seasons one and two. Tends to copy Will's [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy urban lingo]].
849----
850* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Never appears or is mentioned again after season two.
851* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Undoubtedly the most awed at Will's coolness at Bel-Air prep.
852* TokenWhite: One of the characters/friends of Will’s on the show that is white.
853[[/folder]]
854
855[[folder:Edward "Ned" Fellows III]]
856
857(Creator/JonathanEmerson)
858
859A professor at Bel-Air Academy during the first season. Also employs the same street vernacular as Will, to a ''painful'' extent.
860----
861* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: His last appearance is in "Day Damn One."
862* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: '''Very''' awkwardly so -- he even wrote ''{{Theatre/Hamlet}}'' '''in Black English'''. He justifies it by living in Harlem for three weeks.
863[[/folder]]
864
865[[folder:Kurt Smiley]]
866
867[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/751097eb_8530_4041_8cd5_9917fa883343.jpeg]]
868 [[caption-width-right:259:]]
869
870(Creator/DaveFlorek)
871
872The basketball coach at Bel-Air Academy during Will and Carlton's sophomore and junior years there.
873----
874* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Doesn't appear after season two.
875* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: Wears one to try to disguise himself when he goes to a rival school's basketball game to size up the competition.
876* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Punishes students by forcing them to run laps, even for infractions in the classroom.
877* DoubleStandard: Doesn't hold Will to the same standards as the rest of the basketball team because he's the team's star.
878* DumbJock: "All I know is that I went to college on a football scholarship and graduated with honors. So I know a thing or two about cheating!" He also teaches history at Bel-Air Academy, and straight up admits to not knowing a lick of history outside what is covered in the textbook.
879* InsistentTerminology: He's to be called "Professor Smiley" whenever they're in the classroom.
880[[/folder]]
881
882[[folder:Tyriq "Ty" Johnson]]
883
884[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e3822407_f0d1_4b6a_90b2_6a60090f19f7.jpeg]]
885 [[caption-width-right:350:[[BrutalHonesty ”I was trying to be in the video”.]]]]
886
887(Creator/PerryMoore)
888
889Will's best friend in season two.
890----
891* BookDumb: Has been held back in school multiple times. It's also implied that he can't spell "Ohio."
892* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Disappears after season two.
893* TheGenericGuy: He isn't the clever one, or the dumb one, or the quirky one, he is just this guy who feeds lines.
894[[/folder]]
895
896[[folder:Trey "Ice Tray"]]
897
898[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d0a261c3_165c_4396_a967_fd69f6d56bc1.jpeg]]
899 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
900
901(Creator/DonCheadle)
902
903One of Will's best friends from Philadelphia, who visits Will and the Banks family in season one. While there, he and Hilary begin a short-lived relationship.
904----
905* CoolBigBro: Comes off this way.
906* HiddenDepths: At first he seems like sort of a hood with no real interest in school. Will later reveals that without Trey, he never would've made it back in Philadelphia, as he protected Will from bullies trying to jump him for his books.
907* HiddenHeartOfGold: Aunt Vivian dislikes the youth for his thuggish demeanor and lack of intelligence, but Will ends up revealing that when they were children, Tray would beat up the bullies that used to hassle Will because of his love of reading.
908* OneShotCharacter: He never appeared again after his only appearance. Not even in the episode where Will returns to Philadelphia.
909[[/folder]]
910
911[[folder:Trevor Collins-Newsworthy]]
912
913[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2746771d_6457_4514_a57b_034c5b657b1b.jpeg]]
914 [[caption-width-right:220:]]
915
916(Creator/BrianStokesMitchell)
917
918Self-obsessed news anchorman, whom Hilary falls for. Ends up [[spoiler:dying by way of a poorly-executed bungee jump, done as part of a marriage proposal to Hilary on live television,]] in part two of the season four premiere.
919----
920* BrainlessBeauty: Lampshaded.
921--> '''Philip:''' He's a superficial, self-centered, Teleprompter-reading airhead.\
922'''Will:''' Sounds like a match to me.
923* CharacterDeath: And caught on live television, while proposing to Hilary.
924* DroppedABridgeOnHim: In this case he was killed off after '''he''' dropped off a bridge. He decides to propose to Hilary while bungee jumping on live television. Unfortunately, his bungee cord was a little too long.
925* ItsAllAboutMe: If someone pays a compliment to somebody in his vicinity, he takes it for himself. Additionally, he was more insulted by Jazz not knowing who he was than by Jazz making advances on Hilary.
926* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sure, he's egotistical and not particularly smart, but he does have good qualities and was a genuinely good boyfriend to Hilary.
927* TheLostLenore: Trevor's death impacted Hilary for some time and it took a while for her to move on from him.
928* TooDumbToLive: A bungee expert, he was not.
929[[/folder]]
930
931[[folder:Judge Carl Robertson]]
932
933[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/28d30dce_d59f_4e6a_a42b_217ee4001f3c.jpeg]]
934 [[caption-width-right:350:]]
935
936(Creator/ShermanHemsley)
937
938Uncle Phil's former mentor, whom Phil ends up running against for Superior Court Judge in season three. Shortly after Robertson wins the election, however, an angry outburst from Will causes him to suffer a fatal heart attack, and Phil takes his place. He's not to be confused with Hemsley's other character, [[Series/AllInTheFamily George]] [[Series/TheJeffersons Jefferson]], who Hemsley [[{{Crossover}} reprises in two episodes]] of ''Fresh Prince''.
939----
940* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: At the judge's funeral, Will admitted his part in Robertson's death; everyone in the room gave him a standing ovation.
941* AssholeVictim:
942** Literally no one is sad to see him go. His funeral is filled with people who hate him for one reason or another, one of whom only attended because he wanted to make sure the bastard was really dead.
943** Played with too, as both Phillip and Will are horrified to see how many people are ''happy'' to see him dead, regardless of how terrible he was in life. Will gives a big speech about how they should show at least a little compassion… then gets a ''standing ovation'' when he states that he’s "responsible" for Robertson’s death.
944* BadBoss: During his funeral, one of the attendees, the judge's gardener, mentions how not only Robertson stiffed him after planting and maintaining his yard, but tried to have him deported when he tried to collect the debt.
945* BewareTheSillyOnes: Is he senile? Yes. Is he still a brutally shrewd politician? Hell yes!
946--> '''Robertson:''' Oh wake up, knucklehead. You're in the big leagues now. I may be old, I may be senile, and I haven't been able to find my car for the past half hour, but I can beat you in a political campaign any day. You're dead meat, Tiny.
947* BigBad: Essentially this of the "Phil runs for Superior Court" arc; he's the primary obstacle of Phil's campaign, due to being both a competitor and an all around scumbag actively working against him.
948* BitchInSheepsClothing: To the public he's a respectable jurist, complete with a family of paid actors. In reality, he's anything but respectable. While Phil states he used to be a genuinely good person and mentor, it's clear his time living with such success has twisted him into a corrupt and self-centred bastard.
949* BrokenPedestal: Uncle Phil is ecstatic to learn that he's running against his former mentor, believing that the campaign will be fair and honest on both sides. Then he ends up on the wrong side of Judge Robertson's smear campaign, causing Phil to lose all respect for the man.
950* BunnyEarsLawyer: He's a villainous example of this trope: he's an unpleasant and senile old fool, but he's managed to stay a judge for many years in spite of it.
951* CharacterDeath: From a very poorly timed heart-attack.
952* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The implication is that he's senile, but he was odd even when he was younger.
953* CorruptPolitician: Aside from launching a ''nasty'' smear campaign against his own former student, he apparently abused his power for his gain.
954* DirtyOldMan: He's a huge pervert; his campaign headquarters is filled with scantily clad women, and he once even convicted an innocent man because he wanted a date with the prosecutor.
955* EvenEvilHasStandards: Played for laughs, but when Carl (mistakenly) believes Vivian to be drinking alcohol while pregnant, he's seriously concerned and emphatically states to Phil she shouldn't be drinking.
956* EvilCounterpart: To Uncle Phil. Both ambitious judges from the same Law School, but Philip is honest while Judge Robertson is deceitful, dishonest, and resorts to slander to defeat Philip in the election. Philip also has a [[GoodParents loving family that he supports wholeheartedly]], while Robertson is a sleazy philanderer who has to pay actors to pose as his family and even proudly left his real wife with the kids when he divorced her while he kept all the material possessions.
957* ExtremeLibido: According to his mistress of ''twenty years'' and the closest thing he had to a relationship, being with him was "like dating [[WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}} Thumper]]". He's implied to have used his influence to have sex with lots of younger women and his former mistress even states his idea of a romantic line was "when you gonna bring your sister 'round?"
958* FallenHero: He was Phillip's mentor, and Phillip held great respect for him, suggesting he was at one time a genuinely great and principled lawyer (no mean feat given that, based on his age, he would've started his career a decade before even the Civil Rights Movement). In the present, he's a {{Jerkass}} to the extreme. Philip is shocked by how far his friend has fallen.
959* GoldDigger: He married a woman for her money, divorced her, and managed to keep all of it.
960* HandicappedBadass: Robertson's senility didn't stop him finding out Will had numerous unpaid parking tickets and leaking out this information to discredit Phil.
961* HangingJudge: If a campaign ad is to be believed, he has sentenced over six thousand people to prison. In at least one case, the man he sentenced was innocent, and in at least one other case, he decided to convict because [[DirtyOldMan the prosecutor was a babe.]]
962* HatedByAll: Zig-zagged. He won the elections because of his lies about Phillip, so it's more "Liked by the public, hated by the ones who know him personally". His funeral is full of people who are happy to see him dead.
963* HateSink: As this entire entry shows, he has virtually no redeeming qualities to speak of, and went out of his way to defame his own pupil for his own ends.
964* {{Jerkass}}: Judge Robertson was apparently idealistic in his younger days, but as of the show's timeline he's become extremely selfish, misogynistic, deceitful, and a classic example of a corrupt politician. He was such an awful human being that at his funeral, everyone was there to ''celebrate'' his death, and they even applaud Will when they learn that he caused it. It is also stated that it was his own careless lifestyle that caused his death.
965* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: After being a nasty sleazebag for most of his life and defaming Uncle Phil in public, Robertson finally drops dead after Will furiously tells him off, with nobody to mourn him at his own funeral.
966* KarmicDeath: He drops dead after Will snaps at him for his cruel remarks at Uncle Phil. Aunt Viv also assures a despondant Will that Robertson ruined his own health, and so he shouldn't blame himself.
967* LargeHam: He's very loud and bombastic for such a short and senile man.
968* LaserGuidedKarma: He's spent years being sleazy, deceitful bastard, and after he wins reelection, he begins mocking and insulting Uncle Phil. Will finally has had enough and chews him out for the louse he is right in front of everybody, causing him to drop dead just seconds later from a heart attack. With nobody else to take his seat, Uncle Phil is promoted to the bench.
969* LaughablyEvil: He's a corrupt asshole, but his senility makes him tons of fun to watch.
970* LastDisrespects: His funeral is filled with people who had some sort of grudge against him with one man openly admitting that Robertson sentenced him for a crime he didn't commit and that he's just there to make sure Robertson is actually dead. The only two people who don't mock him are Uncle Phil and Will. In the former, he is only there out of a sense of obligation, and even then, he can't say one nice word about him. While Will only defends him out of guilt for having caused his heart attack.
971* LonelyAtTheTop: Judge Robertson was a successful judge, but he has no close family to speak off. He has to hire actors to pretend to be his family. When he dies, nobody has a nice thing to say about him. Unlike most examples, he's totally unfazed by this.
972* NotSoHarmlessVillain: You'd think a senile, perverted eccentric wouldn't be much of an adversary. And you'd be dead wrong.
973* OneSteveLimit: Robertson's forename is a diminutive of the name Carlton. Given he was Phil's mentor and friend, it's likely he named his first son after him. He also shares his surname with Jazz's ex-wife Jewel Robertson though the two don't appear to be related.
974* TookALevelInJerkass: While he was apparently honest and idealistic in his younger days, by the time of the show, he's self-centered, bigoted, misogynistic and dishonest. He still [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretends to be honest and idealistic]], though. How much this is is up for debate, as he freely admits to having married a woman to put himself through law school then divorced her, keeping the material possessions and leaving her with his kids.
975* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Successfully dupes everybody into voting for him after an outrageous smear campaign against Uncle Phil. It is not until his funeral that we see how truly despised he was by those who knew him best.
976[[/folder]]
977
978[[folder:Jacqueline "Jackie" Ames]]
979
980[[quoteright:181:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/73600501_6129_4fe4_8dae_df3c76fbf3e1.jpeg]]
981 [[caption-width-right:181:]]
982
983(Creator/TyraBanks)
984
985An old friend of Will's who ends up attending ULA with him for a short handful of episodes in season four.
986----
987* AbortedArc: And a sad one because she was shaping up to be an interesting character.
988* BelligerentSexualTension: With Will.
989* ChildhoodFriendRomance: She and Will grew up together and it's implied that they were romantically involved once back in Philly. However she disappears before we can see an actual relationship.
990* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Goes away for an unspecified reason halfway through season four. After that, Carlton takes over the Peacock Stop and she doesn't return.
991* DeadpanSnarker: She can outsnark Will in all of their interactions.
992* DistaffCounterpart: To Will.
993* SassyBlackWoman: She definitely has an outspoken attitude to match Will.
994* {{Tomboy}}: Just like Will, she's athletic and plays basketball.
995* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: It's implied that Jackie had a lingering crush on Will before he left and that he hadn't quite realized his feelings until he was gone, thus explaining why he never called because he missed her too much and didn't want to come to terms with his feelings. When she comes out to Bel-Air, Will starts to fall for her again, though the situation suffers from AbortedArc and is never resolved.
996[[/folder]]
997
998[[folder:Jewel Robertson]]
999(Creator/KarenMalinaWhite)
1000
1001Jazz's wife throughout seasons four and five. A hardened criminal who isn't afraid to speak her mind, no matter how brutal her honesty.
1002----
1003* ActionGirl: Fought off several officers when they tried to arrest her.
1004* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Jazz claims that she turned into this once they got married and the honeymoon period wore off. The "sheep" part is arguable, though, since she was on parole for grand theft auto.]]
1005* BrutalHonesty: The prison therapist told her to speak out more often, believing that keeping her feelings bottled up is what led her to the crime she was arrested for.
1006* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler:Hortence.]]
1007* TheGhost: In season five.
1008* InsatiableNewlyweds: Though, she and Jazz have a reason for it beyond wanting to have sex. Results in plenty of RightThroughTheWall when they're staying in the pool house while their apartment is being repainted.
1009* OneSteveLimit: She shares her last name with Judge Robertson though the two don't appear to be related in anyway.
1010* OutOfFocus: Only made two appearances to begin with, both in season four. She never directly appears in season five.
1011* PutOnABus: [[spoiler:Divorces Jazz in the season five finale]].
1012* ReallyGetsAround: [[spoiler:According to Jazz, she slept with every man in their building.]]
1013* RunawayBride: Almost. She tried to make advances on Will to get Jazz to call off the wedding rather than actually run away.
1014* SassyBlackWoman: Though she's arguably more scary than sassy.
1015[[/folder]]
1016
1017[[folder:Lisa Wilkes]]
1018
1019[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6ef37abd_3564_4e3b_8657_65cfd602fc31.jpeg]]
1020 [[caption-width-right:201:]]
1021
1022(Creator/NiaLong)
1023
1024Will's longest-serving girlfriend, and the [[CloserToEarth closest to Earth]] of the two. Their relationship and [[spoiler:engagement]] makes up the majority of season five.
1025----
1026* BoyishShortHair: Has very short hair, although she's still feminine and attractive.
1027* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Most of season 5 is about her and Will's RelationshipUpgrade and eventual engagement, until the season finale when they decide not to marry. She is never seen or mentioned again.
1028* EmbarrassingFirstName: Beulah, her real first name.
1029* HiddenDepths: An offhand remark in "It's A Wonderful Lie" implies she has a reputation for being a party animal and player not unlike Will himself.
1030%%* LethalChef
1031* LoveInterest: Will's only serious love interest, it lasts almost an entire season.
1032* MsFanservice: Nia Long in her prime, with a penchant for tight dresses? Oh yes.
1033* NiceGirl: Very friendly and likable, although she's still strong-willed and not a pushover.
1034* OneSteveLimit: Before he met Lisa in season five, Will had another love interest named Lisa from season four. And yes, she too had a massively overprotective father who Will butted heads with.
1035* WomenAreWiser: She's more levelheaded than Will and in one episode she lampshades how goofy her boyfriend can be.
1036* {{Yandere}}: She fakes this during their first date as a prank set up by Carlton. [[spoiler:Will gets even though.]]
1037[[/folder]]
1038
1039[[folder:Fred Wilkes]]
1040
1041[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1b40a1c8_cdee_4852_9862_366154bf6433.jpeg]]
1042 [[caption-width-right:201:]]
1043
1044(Creator/JohnAmos)
1045
1046Lisa's blue-collar father. Though he develops a (too) close friendship with Will, he initially sees the Banks family as upper-class snobs before bonding with Uncle Phil. In the season five finale, [[spoiler:he ends up marrying Will's mother Vi.]]
1047----
1048* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Prior to Will, Lisa has never had a relationship survive meeting her dad. Will got along with him ''too'' well, however.
1049* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In a similar situation to that of his daughter, he's nowhere to be seen when Vy shows up in season six despite marrying Vy in the season five finale. Even worse, Vy had shown interest in ''another guy'' in Season 6.
1050* DeadpanSnarker: He has his moments.
1051-->'''Fred:''' Have you ever done an honest day's work?
1052-->'''Philip:''' I happen to be a judge!
1053-->'''Fred:''' I'll take that as a no.
1054* SlapSlapKiss: [[spoiler:Goes from volleying insults with Vy in one scene to sleeping with her in the next.]]
1055* WhyWasteAWedding: [[spoiler: When Will and Lisa call of their wedding mid-ceremony, Fred decides its a good time to get married to Vy.]]
1056[[/folder]]
1057
1058[[folder:Werner]]
1059
1060(Creator/JimMeskimen)
1061
1062The producer of Hilary's self-titled talk show. Only seen in season six.
1063----
1064* BenevolentBoss: To Will, once Will shows some initiative.
1065* DeadpanSnarker: If you worked with Hilary and Will, you would be, too.
1066* HatesBeingTouched: By Will, at least.
1067* OnlySaneMan: When you work with Will and Hilary for a living, you're this by default.
1068[[/folder]]
1069
1070[[folder:Ralph Scorpius]]
1071
1072(Creator/GlennShadix)
1073
1074A medium psychic with wizardly abilities. Only appears in "[[HalloweenEpisode Hex and the Single Guy]]" of season 4.
1075----
1076* BigFun
1077* GypsyCurse: Places one on Will when the latter calls him a fake.
1078* PsychicPowers
1079[[/folder]]
1080
1081[[folder:Omar]]
1082
1083(Jacques Apollo Bolton)
1084
1085Omar is the guy who started a fight with Will, which caused Will to move to Bel-air.
1086----
1087* HeelFaceTurn: By the time Will is reunited with him, he is no longer violent, and is in fact dedicated to helping the community.
1088* SmallRoleBigImpact: He only appears in the opening song, and in one episode, but he is the reason Will was sent to Bel-air.
1089
1090[[/folder]]
1091

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